Luciano Squillaci, FICT President: "We express satisfaction for several reasons: because the delegation to anti-drug policies has finally been assigned after years of emptiness, because it has been assigned to a Ministry and because it is a Ministry that also deals with youth policies. We take it as a signal of attention to the world of addiction and to the younger generation.

"My hope, as president of the Italian Federation of Therapeutic Communities – is that collaborative work will begin starting from the centrality of the person and not of the substance, to respond effectively to needs, focusing on the real problems of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation and social and work reintegration. Let us hope that we do not continue to waste time chasing substances, a battle that has been lost for some time, or we are divided on purely ideological issues, such as legalisation or liberalisation, which are frankly of little importance to those who fight every day in services on the ground". Luciano Squillaci, pres. FICT function

"The political delegation to drugs is of fundamental importance for a sector that has been sailing alone without a compass for too many years. It is essential that this task be carried out drawing on the experience of public and private social service operators, who go ahead, experimenting and providing answers, despite legislation regulating services (309/90) that is now old and inadequate in relation to today's needs. A sector that needs to immediately set up tables of discussion and dialogue to arrive at the organization of the National Conference on Anti-Drug Policies, provided for in the single text every three years and absent since 2009.

A sector, says Squillaci, that has been completely forgotten and that has suffered throughout this period of pandemic of the indifference of the institutions. Abandoned even before the pandemic and forgotten during the pandemic."

"We therefore ask for the right attention to services on pathological addictions, to young people and families who are experiencing the great suffering and discomfort caused by the educational, social and political vacuum that has been created in the last twenty years. There are no prevention projects, no one thinks about the reintegration of users into society. As if this band, which is also large, was invisible and unworthy of attention."

"In Italy, according to the latest data, says President FICT, there are about 350 deaths a year for direct reasons related to the substance alone, without considering "indirect" deaths, such as road accidents. Every year we census over 100 New Psychoactive Substances: with the evolution of neuroscience it has been scientifically proven that the use of substances changes the neuronal structure with psychiatric consequences from the continuous use of psychotropic substances, consequences that can be of various kinds: permanent pathologies or serious psychiatric situations, if not death."

Squillaci concludes: "Italy has disinvested on prevention and addiction, and services are in disarray, today more than ever. There is a huge effort on the ground. The hope is that together, through the joint work with the Minister, we will proceed towards a substantial discussion on the levels of education, prevention and care to give the right dignity to all the actors of the public and the social private sector of pathological addictions but above all to really put the needs of young people and the most fragile people at the center."

Info: Elisabetta Piccioni – FICT Press Office