Representative of Intersindical Canaria says that we must turn 180 degrees in addiction policy

Santa Cruz de Tenerife, (EFE) 180 degree turn to policies related to these and mental health.

Pedro Pablo Medina, who appeared at the parliamentary presentation that addresses the fourth Canarian plan on Addictions, 2022-2024, has been very critical of it and has commented that if he is asked what is being done on the islands in terms of addictions, he prefers to remain silent because he’s sorry

For this reason, it has considered that it is time to draw up a new plan, in which it is assumed that one of the objectives should be to create technical committees that implement work on a model, because it has insisted that it is not possible to continue improvising and solving only the day to day problems.

Pedro Pablo Medina has assured that if you are capable of planning, you will see how the need to invest in the healthcare field decreases in the medium term.

In the addiction plan, there is no mention of sexist violence, nor of child pornography, nor of new technologies, and an issue such as the problems of housekeepers who, when there is a “brutal” increase in beds, “The only way to deal with the problem is to take pills, and whoever doesn’t want to see it is either blind or looks the other way,” he said.

At this point, he was in favor of changing the production model and providing specialized attention by sector.

During his speech, he also claimed as “fundamental” that island and municipal data be collected, since the data from the national drug plan “is very good” but cannot be extrapolated.

The representative of Intersindical Canaria spoke of a precarious labor situation among workers in the sector and was surprised that the arguments of twenty years ago have been used in this plan, something that in his opinion means that “what we developed decades ago was not misguided”, but it also shows “how little progress has been made”.

Pedro Pablo Medina has also criticized that the plan does not mention the covid-19 pandemic, and that the experts they are said to have consulted have told him that all they did was answer some questions.

He has also criticized that the “lack of coordination” is such that “either nothing is done or up to three entities appear in some voluntarist town hall.”

In the workplace, “zero” has been made, and in training actions young people are hired precariously, but there is also no coordination between sectoral plans and the financial record has been the same for years, he reported.

The representative of Intersindical Canaria has stated that the Canary Islands was a benchmark in addiction work, in such a way that it provided state advice in the international arena, and has indicated that the disappearance of the Directorate General for Attention to Drug Dependence “marks everything”. EFE

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