Mr Czibere said that since last year’s International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, an important task was that of adopting the anti-drug strategy, which happened in October and set the tasks for the 2013-2020 period. He reminded that the drug market underwent radical changes in the past years and the effects of many new psychoactive substances are not yet fully understood by medicine.

He said families and small communities play a key role in drug prevention, thus social policy should support them in this task. He also said that young people are most in need of these small groups when they go through the most difficult phase of their lives.

Mr Czibere – on behalf of Minister for Human Resources Zoltán Balog – handed out the “Elige Vitam” (latin for “choose life”) to Ajándok Eőry, doctor at the Hungarian Maltese Aid and addictionologist Gábor Kelemen, Professor at the Pécs Science University for their decades-long committed work in the field of drug prevention and addiction treatment. Five further specialists and two institutions received diplomas for their dedicated work.

The United Nations General Assembly declared June 26 the World Anti-Drug Day in 1988 and Hungary has been observing it since 1997 and awards for work in this field have been handed out on this day since 2001.

Source: Ministry of Human Resources