Some 960,000 15-19 yr-olds have taken drugs - Mantovano (2)

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 25 - Some 960,000 young people aged 15-to-19 have tried narcotics at least once in their life, almost 40% of the students in this age range, and over 680,000 have taken drugs over the last year, Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano told a conference for the presentation of the annual report to parliament on drug addiction.
    Mantovano said the data referred to 2023.
    "We have a lowering of the age of the youth population's first approach to drugs," he said.
    He added that the shocking recent case of a 16-year-old who was brutally murdered by two teenagers in Pescara due to a disagreement over petty drug pushing was the sort of crime that is "systematically repeated".
    He referred to "years, if not decades, of road accidents with an unexplainable cause and murders that have been brought about by the total absence of inhibiting brakes and have only one common thread - drug use". (ANSA).