NEWS ANALYSIS/OMNIS TERRA - Drugs and drug addiction in Latin America: models of ecclesial community intervention

Saturday, 30 November 2019 addictions   human rights   youth   drugs  

Latin America is the land of cocaine and marihuana. Colombia, Peru and Bolivia are the world's largest producers of cocaine, while the major marihuana crops are in Mexico and Paraguay (in addition to Peru and Bolivia). From the "kitchen" of cocaine, one obtains the deadly "base paste", the "drug of the poor", also called crack or paco, a real scourge that irreversibly destroys neurons, makes a person feel dull and causes violent reactions. The continental Church, as well as Pope Francis, has repeatedly and harshly condemned the consumption (and the entire supply chain, which makes it possible) of psychoactive drugs, placing the drug addict at the center of the problem. The Church is therefore at the forefront of combating drugs as a pathology (addiction) in an integral way, and is convinced that it is a complex problem with many causes. The virtuous experiences of the members of the Familia Grande Hogar de Cristo in Argentina and the proximity interventions of Servidores del Servidor in Colombia, movements in Brazil: in various ways, Christian communities are committed to preventing and recovering young people who have fallen into the network of dependencies, proposing valid models of ecclesial community intervention, recognized in all national societies. (...)


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