Drug abusers are victims too - President

President Guido de Marco said yesterday that although drug use was a crime, abusers were victims themselves and should therefore be assisted to reintegrate themselves in society.

Prof. de Marco was speaking at a seminar on the correlation between drugs and criminality organised by the national agency against drug and alcohol abuse, seqda, and the European Collaborating Centres in Addiction Studies. The seminar was held at the New Dolmen in Qawra.

Prof. de Marco asked to what extent a drug addict was criminally responsible for his actions.

He said addicts often acted with diminished responsibility because of drug dependency.

Prof. de Marco publicly thanked the police and other organisations for their dedication and work in this field.

He also spoke on the role of the Drug Forum which was set up earlier this year to seek solutions that would help addicts.

The forum, chaired by Prof. de Marco, is made up of representatives of Caritas, sedqa, the Substance Abuse Therapeutic Unit, the Probation Services at Kordin, the National Commission Against Drug and Alcohol Abuse and the police among others.