"I would wait until I got off work so I could go drinking and getting high."

Rarely does one have the opportunity to talk with patients who have used drugs in a face-to-face conversation. The project Pre(ad)diction, which involves several Schools of the University of Navarra, has organized a roundtable for students in which Jorge and Alba, fictitious names chosen by their protagonists, have participated to relate their experience with drugs and alcohol.

"I started drinking in the military, when I was 22 years old, and I also started with joints," says Jorge, who is now 62, "I had a business, family, friends and a girlfriend. Then I lost everything. It's a disaster to be hooked, because you think you're fine when in reality you're not". His process of change begins when he has a serious accident "that cost me twenty thousand euros to rebuild my teeth from a fall". Sometimes the scares are the ones that make the most impact to change the chip. As was the case with Alba, who stopped talking to her brother: "I started to drink on the sly at home, to smoke on weekends with my friends and I switched to methamphetamines. I moved away from my family and my brother doesn't talk to me. That's what led me to ask for financial aid two months ago."

But like all tunnels, there is always a light at the end: "I now have healthy friendships. I've started on a path that I don't want to undo because of how good I look now," says Alba. "The best thing I can do is to occupy my time. I do sports, I study English and I dedicate my weekends to astronomy," adds Jorge, who also jokes that "the stars were blurring in my head when I was deprived!

According to report of the National Drug Plan 2022, the substances most consumed in the last year were alcohol (76.4%), tobacco (39%), hypnosedatives (13.1%), cannabis (10.6%) and cocaine (2.4%). Cannabis is currently the most prevalent drug, having been used at some time in life by slightly more than 40 % of the population. With regard to powder cocaine, 11.7% of the participants in the surveys acknowledged having consumed it at some time in their lives, with the age of onset being 21 years average . The drug knows no gender, although men are more likely to use it than women, the perception is not the same. Alba assures that "there is gender discrimination, because women do not dare to ask for financial aid due to a greater stigma. For example, if they have children, they may be deprived of custody.

A support in Navarra

ANTOX is the association to which Alba and Jorge belong, thanks to them they have been able to move forward. It is a association Navarra for the research, Prevention and Treatment of Addictions. It was born in 1981 by a group of relatives who had people close to them affected by drug addiction, and a year later in 1982 the Therapeutic Community of Larraingoa was set up. Led by a team of professionals from different specialties: Medicine, Psychology, work Social, Education social, the creation of this resource assistance, is the starting point for the growth of the association that has evolved until today, adapting to the needs of society and the people served and always with the goal and commitment to provide service and respond to new demands for treatment.