Getting youths on board

By Aram Barra*

There are over 1.2 billion youths in the planet today. This means, in other words, that approximately 18% of the world’s population is age 15 to 24 today. In Latin America, we also number close to 18% of the total population.

And, although the statistical significance of the age bracket is obvious, it does not mean that we have had our say, or that our opinions have been absorbed into the region’s policy agenda.

Latin America lacks policies designed to promote education and the integration of young people in society. The lack of policies extends to issues of gender, to the lack of facilities for public recreation and for the artistic and cultural expression of youths in their various identities and groups. We, young people, have been limited at night to bars, clubs and parties. During the day, adults rule and tell us what to say and do, and how to do it.

For example, in México today there are 14.5 night clubs for every cultural center in the city. Even if we see the nighttime entertainment industry as a venue for our freedom, they are private establishments; they are not open to all, and they they are a factor that contributes to the fragmentation of the social lives and identities of young people.

And what does drug policy have to do with all this? Let us not lose sight of the fact that we youths use drugs for a number of reasons. Whether it is for our own entertainment, to help us adjust socially, whether we do drugs because it is our social tradition, or even, to numb ourselves those of us that go hungry, or to deal with trauma or in search of relief from pain. The concept of prevention is lost on young people who already use drugs, and the areas we frequent are also favor starting drug use. So telling us or trying to force us not to use drugs or to stop using drugs is no use while all else remains unchanged.

Traditional policies, and drug policy in particular do not cater to the realities of Latin-American youths, they do not change our society’s structural problems. We have noted that 21% of the youths in the region neither study nor work, while 33% only work, 54% have not completed their schooling, 41% live in poverty and 23% in extreme poverty. Without education, work, health care or adequate venues for self-expression, drugs will find a niche to proliferate and gain in popularity.

Until the day comes when public policies adequately address our need for political participation we will carry on seeing a tearing apart and fragmentation of the social fabric, vandalism and violence. Thus we will go on seeing a growth in accessible drugs, and in young people who use them irrationally and unthinkingly as a way to escape reality. We will also be witnesses to the lack of dialogue between the generations and an increasing apathy and refusal to participate.
We, young people, must have a significant participation in the political life of the Latin American governments, since we are those who can best speak out for our own life styles and situations. We are endowed with rights and guarantees and we must be allowed to choose what is best for ourselves according to our own experiences. After all, no one better than an individual him or herself to decide what enters their bodies and what to make of one’s life, and that applies to young people too.

In this sense, it is very important that we demand of governments and societies, supported by regional and international organizations, that drug policy follow specific recommendations for youths, and that they take into consideration the four guiding principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child:

1. Non-discrimination: we need to eliminate age related barriers that require parental consent or that deny confidentiality to underage minors. We need to eliminate age restrictions on the availability of harm reduction policies such as needle exchange and treatments with opium derivatives. It is important that we offer reproduction health care for youths, especially for drug users.

2. We need to prioritize the interests of children and youths: all drug policy must adhere to international human rights norms. This will guarantee that drug policy will include granting support to those most vulnerable and needy, such as young substance users and the homeless.

3. Life, survival and development: reality-based honest, straight forward and complete drugs education as well as preventative measures. The provision of youth services, access to education and the health services and all the essential components of an effective drug policy that targets an improved health of young drug users. And, further, to prioritize age appropriate treatment over detention, incarceration or forced rehabilitation.

4. Youth participation: countries must allow for the significant participation of involved youths in drug policy and development programs, their application and evaluation at all levels. Young drugs users, those with HIV and, young Latin Americans in general, must not lose the right to participate. It is our right to be included in the decisions that affect our lives.

In all of Latin America, young people are the most important actors in social, economic and political transformation. But the agenda in public policy must be built jointly, fostering citizenship and ethics in participation. We must discuss our problems and preoccupations: our sexual and reproductive health, our drug use, violence and discrimination of youths, our urgent need for education and decent jobs.

*Aram Barra is Mexican, he is 23 years old and has been an activist for the rights of youths for the past 10 years. He belongs to Espolea and YOuth R.I.S.E in his country.