On June 12 of this year, a meeting of the interdepartmental working group on prevention and strengthening of mental health of adolescents and young people was held in Uzbekistan under the Senate Committee on Youth, Culture and Sports.

During the meeting, the state of work on the prevention of drug and psychotropic substances consumption among teenagers and young people was discussed.

During the last three years (2021-2023), about 25,000 criminal cases were initiated in this direction, and more than 17,000 persons were prosecuted. About 5 thousand of them (30%) were persons under 30 years of age.

According to the analysis, the number of young people who commit drug crimes is increasing year by year. In particular, in 2021, 23% of those who committed such crimes were young people, in 2022, it reached 24.6%, and in 2023, it reached 31.2%.

52 information resources specializing in the sale of psychotropic substances have been identified on the Internet. 14 of them created websites, and 38 created Telegram messenger. About 120,000 users are covered through Telegram channels.

Officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs provided information about the effective measures taken to fight against this issue and its prevention, as well as future plans.