Material and cultural growth have created in the young people of today an extraordinary and equivocal will-to-live and to experience the various possibilities offered to their energies. They want to live aloof from the traditional ways of acting, of the official norms presented to them; they want to feel responsible in a new sort of experience which is all theirs.

They want to try out all the experiences available to them and to find new ones (the extraordinary excitement of drugs). They want to test the effectiveness of their own actions, eager to build a better world.

The Salesians of Don Bosco are always in search of young people wherever they may be. It is a story of love which is contagious and spreads, drawing many people into its light and strength, a family, a movement. All over the world our life is invaded by the immense ranks of young people and they disturb our heart promoting it to imitate that of the good shepherd.

We dictate a journey of someone who tries to understand one of the biggest problems of society today and as an educator tries to find solutions, encouraging parents not to give up but to continue to fight the battle. It is also a continuous warning that the drug problem is a battle to be waged by everyone in society.

The uneasiness we are living in tends to become deeper because of the shortcomings of the institutions and of their difficulties in communications in the language of the young and in coping with their superficiality and the absence of values. Man has become weaker and subject to modern alienation.

In reply to the question ‘Why do youths resort to drugs?’ medicine, psychology and sociology give various hypothesis.

Youths also give their varied contentions. Some declare that they do it because everyone else does it, that it all started out of curiosity. Others say that it was due to environmental influences, because drugs increase their sensual capabilities and increase also their well-being (however, it has scientifically been proved that drugs, taken for pleasurable effects, may also have their side effects marked by physical deterioration).

There is no such thing as a harmless drug. All drugs are potentially destructive.

Too many people still believe the myth that cannabis (marijuana, pot, hash) is relatively innocuous.

All the evidence today shows that this is simply not true. Cannabis is now known to have adverse effects on the brain, impairing judgement, memory and coordination.

“It affects the lungs, interfering with pulmonary functions, and carrying a greater risk of cancer than heavy cigarette smoking. It attacks the immune and reproductive system. More subtly, but no less harmfully, it prevents adolescents from becoming mature, responsible adults by offering them an escape from the inevitable tensions and difficulties of growing up.” (Drugs, Eddie Fitzgerald, SDB)

These institutions are more interested in what they can get in return rather than in the young people themselves and their efforts towards self-realisation. One of young people’s problems today is the truth. Where is the truth or who has the real truth?

There is no such thing as a harmless drug- Fr Charles Cini

The prophet used to announce the truth. At the moment we are living a culture of crisis and the first to suffer are the young people. Very often they are carried away on the spur of the moment and the decisions they take do not help them realise themselves and build their future.

Young people today do not accept half-measures. They expect messages coming from any institutions to be very clear. But do institutions in Malta respect this expectation? Are they able to speak clearly?

Are they authentic in the contents of their messages? Are they false or true prophets to young people today? A young person in search of truth goes into a crisis when he realises he has been deceived.

Young people must be educated to feel secure, to be able to choose, to fight strongly against negative currents. I am afraid that sometimes parents score very poorly in ethics and morality. We seem to have given up the true principles on which we used to build our families.

How can we be able to solve many of the problems we have with young people if we are unable to instil in their hearts a real pattern of life based on true and solid principles? Even parents have received a mission from God to speak to their children in His name.

I am thinking of issues like love, sex, contraception, abortion, marriage, drugs, alcohol, AIDS. These are issues which the family very often fails to tackle. And because young people are weak by nature, they refer to false prophets without solving their everyday problems. Ambiguous ideologies and sometimes even anticlericalism are misleading.

My last question is: where do we want to lead our young people? I am sure it is not any easy question, but the more we are confused the more our young people will find life awkward.

Let us be sincere with ourselves. Let us shed our inhibitions. Let us be more dedicated to our mission.

Let us put more sacrifice in the art of educating our young. Let us profess what we believe. The great moment of truth has arrived for each and every one of us.

The horrible problem of drugs in Malta and Gozo will never be solved only by allowing the growing of cannabis at home, but by principles, morality, prevention and especially education!

Fr Charles Cini, member, Salesians of Don Bosco