If it is pertinent to remind, last year the Committee on Youth, Culture, and Sports Affairs of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, in collaboration with the “Yukksalish” nationwide movement, conducted a public hearing aimed at preventing the use of narcotic substances and psychotropic substances among youth and adolescents. The meeting extensively discussed the issues of the consumption and sale of narcotics, psychotropic active substances among youth, especially adolescents, as a rapidly globalizing problem, the malignant attempts by unscrupulous individuals to engage youth in such nefarious activities or exploit them, and measures to prevent this.
According to UN data, over 25 percent of children aged 12-15 have tried or had the experience of consuming (psychological active or synthetic) substances.
In some countries, 56 percent of boys and 20 percent of girls have tried narcotic substances or toxicomania substances at least once, moreover, 45 percent of boys and 18 percent of girls continue to use them.
Based on sources, in our republic, the sale and consumption of potent drugs like “Tropicamide”, “Pregabalin” (“Lyrica”, “Regapen” and “Lipre”), “Zaleplon” (“Sellofen”) and drugs containing narcotic substance “Tramadol” have been recorded.
It should be noted that today, with the development of online sales, economic activity has moved to a new phase, giving a strong push to the expansion of the digital market. Hence, the majority of trade is conducted through the Internet.
From this point of view, the illegal trade of narcotics, psychotropic substances, and precursors in streets, educational institutions, and pharmacies has also moved to the Internet, including social networks. More precisely, online platforms are becoming a convenient information field for illegal trade in this area.
According to existing laws, the promotion of psychotropic materials and precursors is banned in our country. However, almost every day we encounter such information on the Internet. Sadly, the monitoring process shows that the distribution of such banned information is increasing year by year.
In 2023, incidents related to the advertisement/distribution of drugs, psychotropic substances, and precursors on the “Telegram” messenger and social networks did not exceed 200, but by the end of 2024, this figure reached 18,393.
The public is also not indifferent to this problem. For instance, in collaboration with the AOCA and law enforcement agencies, the “Telegram” messenger's @stopnarko_bot> received 2484 photo, 128 video, 54 file, 4 audio, 829 link, 17 voice, 13 GIF messages during 2024.
In its turn, law enforcement agencies are reviewing identified cases within the legal framework to hold administrative and criminal responsibility, and AOCA is collaborating with social network administrations to suppress the distribution of illegal content through online platforms and pages.
The above numbers necessitate us to further strengthen our efforts in this direction. To do this, first and foremost, we need to solidify the legal basis, adopt new normative legal documents. Because it has been almost seven years since the Government resolution on “Measures to Further Improve Information Security on the World Wide Web” was adopted. During this time, the Internet and social networks, generally the field of digitalization, have developed significantly. In conclusion, it is a requirement of the times to renew and make changes to the legislation accordingly.
Mamurjon PARPIEV,
Head of the Department of Information and Mass Communications Agency
