Cardinal Turkson issues statement for UN Day against Drug Abuse

June 26, 2017

In a statement issued for the UN’s International Day Against Drug Abuse, Cardinal Peter Turkson argues that giving young people a “spiritual vision of existence” is the best way to combat the lure of recreational drug use.

The prefect of the Vatican dicastery for Integral Human Development takes note of the steadily growing problem of drug use. “Drugs have become a consumer produce made compatible with everyday life, with leisure activity,a nd even with the pursuit of well-being,” he says. He notes the international debate on the legal regulation of marijuana, the most commonly used recreational drug, and observes that this debate “tends to overlook the ethical judgment of the substance.”

Addiction can become more prevalent because of “indifference and at times indirect complicity” in society, the cardinal said. He insisted that “it cannot be accepted that society metabolizes drug use as a chronic epochal trait, similar to alcoholism and tobacco.”

Among the causes of rising drug use, Cardinal Turkson cited “the lost of the ancient primacy of the family and the school, the emptying of authority of adult figures, and the difficulties that arise in terms of parenting.” He urged that adults challenge young people in ways that make them less susceptible to the lures of drug use. “To comabt the ephemeral happiness of addictions requires creative love and adults capable of teaching and practicing healthy self-case,” he said.

 

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Further information:

• Message of the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development on the occasion of the International Day against Abuse and Illicit Trafficking of Drugs (Vatican press office)