Drug use kills over 2,000 in Turkey in last 10 years

ISTANBUL

A total of 2,148 people were killed because of drug use in the last 10 years in Turkey since 2007, daily Milliyet reported on Aug. 10, citing a 2017 drug report prepared jointly by eight ministries.

Some 680,575 people have gone through drug rehabilitation treatment over the period from 2014-2016, with a total of 106,112 phone calls made to the ALO 191 national drug helpline over the last two and half years.

In 2014, 247,502 patients checked into drug addiction treatment centers across Turkey, whereas this figure was 193,949 in 2015 and 239,124 in 2016.

There are at least 1.3 million people in Turkey from ages 15-64 who have used drugs at least once in their lives, the report said.

The report also includes information regarding drug-related treatment costs, indicating that 147.3 million Turkish Liras were spent for treatment services, including medication expenses, over the period from 2014 and March 2017. 

If this figure was broken down into years, treatment costs increased from 34.3 million liras in 2014 to 53.9 million liras in 2016, whereas medication costs increased from 16.8 liras in 2014 to 21.9 million liras in 2016. In the first quarter of 2017, on the other hand, a total of 18.5 million liras were spent for 32,290 drug-addict patients.

The report also touched on the number of suspects caught in relation to narcotics charges by police. Security forces in 2014 across the country caught 117,686 suspects in almost 78,000 drug-related incidents, whereas this figure was 114,276 people caught in 81,222 incidents in 2016.

In 2016, security forces in the country seized 104.8 million drug pills and 155.8 kilograms of drugs (hashish, heroin, cocaine, etc.), the report said.

The Justice Ministry, Labor Ministry, Customs Ministry, Health Ministry, Family and Social Policies Ministry, Youth and Sports Ministry, Interior Ministry, and Education Ministry all participated in preparing the 176-page “Fight Against Drug Activity Report 2017.”