The departments of Social Welfare, through the Department of Prevention of Drug Dependencies, and Citizen Security of the City of Totana will promote a public awareness campaign to prohibit the sale and consumption of alcohol to children under 18 on the occasion of Carnival and Easter .
The Councilor for Social Welfare, Javier Baños, accompanied by the technician of the municipal drug addiction program, Lucía Gallego, and the chief commissioner of the Local Police, Alfonso Canales, have presented this initiative and reported on the actions that are being taken from the Administration local in this regard.
The awareness campaign, which has already been done similarly on other occasions coinciding with festive dates, aims to warn about the risks of alcoholic beverages and other drugs, especially in young people, coinciding with these festive dates.
In this way, Local Police agents have been informing local dispensers or those who are capable of selling alcohol to minors, especially multiprecius, about the prohibition of selling alcohol to children under 18 years of age, as well as of the risks involved in the breach of the municipal ordinance of consumption on public roads.
In addition, it is recalled the content of the ordinance regulating the sale, dispensation and supply of alcoholic beverages, as well as the consequences that the consideration of minor and serious infractions has on the owners of these establishments.
Likewise, the actions related to prevention that have been developed in the schools of Totana, from 6th of Primary Education to 4th of the ESO, as well as the risks associated with the abuse of alcoholic beverages and other substances
The Argos program is also being developed in the 1st and 2nd courses of the ESO of all educational centers and in Totana health centers, whose main objective is to implement systematic drug intervention interventions in Primary Care for vulnerable populations , as are teenagers and pregnant and breastfeeding women, following the guidelines of the National Drug Plan.
In the area of ​​health promotion, the damage caused by alcohol is especially serious during adolescence, a stage where physical and psychological development is in the process.
The preventive and corrective nature developed by the Local Police was informed and the consequences of non-compliance with the municipal ordinance, which entails administrative sanctions and fines of important consideration depending on the cases.
It is estimated that approximately three out of four students between the ages of 14 and 18 have tried alcohol and, more than half, drink it regularly.
When they drink, they do it mostly during the weekend and, almost half of these, until they get drunk.
In addition, they pointed out that at these ages they lack sufficient maturity to correctly assess the risks involved in their consumption.
Finally, it was recalled that in the last 9 years more than 1,200 complaints have been processed for contravening the ordinance of sale and consumption of alcohol on public roads, of which 264 were filed in 2019;
while it was reported that about 1,000 files were held for possession and consumption of drugs on the street, of the 204 were reported in 2019. In addition, 103 were filed for crimes against road safety in the past year.
