The use of illicit drugs in Taiwan is now most prevalent among people in their 20s and represents a growing concern because of the effect it could have on the productivity of young people, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official Tsay Wen-ing (蔡文瑛) said yesterday.
Tsay, the director of the FDA’s Division of Controlled Drugs, told an anti-drug campaign conference that people aged 24 to 29 have replaced those aged 30 to 39 as the age group with the highest prevalence of drug use.
The statistics are reflected in hospital data from 2013 to last year on reported incidents of illicit drug use, which showed that people in their 20s were the most common (43.9 percent) first-time users, followed by those 19 or under (26.4 percent) and those in their 30s (21.1 percent).
“The increasing prevalence of young people experimenting with drugs is a mounting concern for the government, especially since those 24 to 29 are the backbone of economic productivity,” Tsay said.
“Drug use affects not only people’s health, but also increases workplace accidents and poses a threat to productivity,” she said.
“The most commonly abused are Class B drugs, among which methamphetamines are the most widely used,” she said. “Use of these drugs can result in hallucinations, which can lead to actions that kill people.”
“The FDA has begun to mobilize resources to raise awareness of drug use and prevention,” Tsay said.
Proposed legislation in the US outlines three conditions in which Washington would be authorized to protect Taiwan were China to invade, a report said yesterday. US Representative Ted Yoho this month said he would introduce a Taiwan Invasion Prevention Act, which would authorize US military force if China were to invade Taiwan-controlled areas, including its outlying islands. According to a version of the bill obtained by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times), the bill lists three conditions in which a US president would be authorized to use military force to protect Taiwan: If China uses military force
The Supreme Court on Tuesday found four men guilty of attempted murder in the 2017 stabbing of Spanish surfer Ignacio Prio on a Pingtung County beach in the final ruling in the case, sentencing them to three-and-a-half to six years in prison. The defendants had appealed their convictions for attempted murder in the first and second rulings, which had also led to prison sentences ranging from three-and-a-half years to six years. The then-42-year-old Prio went to Jialeshui Beach (佳樂水) near Kenting (墾丁) on March 31, 2017, was attacked after he asked four men to remove their fishing lines from an area
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