HAITIAN OBSERVATORY ON DRUGS REPORT QUALITATIVE SURVEY ON STREET CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

1. HAITIAN OBSERVATORY ON DRUGSREPORTQUALITATIVE SURVEY ON STREET CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

2. 1.Preparation of data collection tools • Five questionnaires were drafted in French and Creole to carry out semi structured interviews among the five information groups • The questions bore on the following themes: ØThe substances ØThe users ØThe contexts

3. 2.- Recruitment of participants and surveyors / Description and definition of five information groups • Street children and adolescents who live in the streetsin theneighborhoods of the privately financed centers. A monitor in each of these centers in each area accompanied the surveyor during the interventions on the streets.There were 197 street children, i.e. 189 boys and 8 girls. • Professionals – Treatment:was composed of six (6) participants distributed as follows: psychiatrist, psychologists, general medical practitioners, nurse, and social worker. • Professionals from the legal sector:Six (6) institutions wee represented in that group: The Minors’ Brigade, the Bureau for the Fight against Drugs (BLTS), the District Attorney’s Office, The General Customs Office (AGD), the Administration of the Penitentiary Institution (DAP) the Bureau of Criminal Affairs (BAC).

4. Recruitment of participants and surveyors / Description and definition of five information groups • Professionals –Prevention:This group consisted in animators coming from three privately financed centers. For the data collection process, there was one group per shelter. In total, 17 professionals working at privately financed centers answered the surveyors’ questions. • Street children in privately financed centers:Three privately financed centers participated in this study. Two social workers from Institut de Bien-Etre Social et de Recherches assisted by students at Unversité Jean Price Mars conducted the collection of data involving 88 street children and adolescents: 80 boys and 8 girls. • The questionnaires (see annexes) were pre-tested in one of the privately financed centers that participated in the survey.

5. Recruitment of participants and surveyors / Description and definition of five information groups • The animators of the information groups consisted in: • ØA lawyer representing the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MAST); he animated the information group of Professionals of the legal sector; • ØTwo social workers from Institut de Bien-Etre Social et de Recherches (IBSER), who animated the information group of street children in privately financed centers and the information group on prevention • ØMonitors working in the privately financed centers for the animation of the information groups of street children and adolescents who live in the streets. • ØTwo representatives of OHD;

6. 3- Procedures and difficulties met • the questionnaires were drafted both in French and in Creole. • the interviews however were carried out in Creole. • the target population was 270 street children and adolescents. • the number surveyed reached 285 children/ adolescents and 30 professionals

7. Procedures and difficulties met cont’d • The street children in the business district asked that we gave them sweets in exchange for their replies, while those in Petion-Ville asked for money. • As for Morne l’Hôpital, the surveyors had to go there three times as the number of street children and adolescents was insufficient. • The interviews lasted between an hour and a half to two hours. • The animators in the privately financed centers had to call back the children being surveyed several times.

8. 4. - Description of the tools used • The main themes discussed within the information groups during the interviews covered: • Their perception of the consumption of drugs and the problems related • thereto • The effects of drugs • School • At risk behaviors • Their perception of crime in the community in relation with the use of • alcohol mixed with gasoline / drugs • Their perception and ideas concerning prevention programs

9. 5.Procedures of the analysis • Based on the questionnaires and on the audiocassettes, • §The replies were compiled for each information group • §A preliminary analysis was carried out • §The results were codified then recorded on the NVIVO • software based on the list of knots: Substances, users, • contexts • §Based on the print out of the relationship of the knots, the • global analysis was conducted. This enabled us to bring out • the results and to prepare the survey’s report.

10. 7.-Reliability of data • The animators in the privately financed centers helped the surveyors by encouraging the street children and adolescents answer freely the questions asked. They assured them of the confidentiality of their answers. These animators did not intervene directly in the surveys during the meetings of the street children and adolescents in order to void that they influence their answers. • In the streets, the children and adolescents felt more at ease when they saw that the animators they already knew accompanied the surveyors. There again they were able to answer without fear.

11. Acknowledgements • Inter American Commission for the Control of Drug Abuse of the Organization of American States (OAS-CICAD) • French Observataory of Drugs and Substance Abusers (OFDT) • Health Observatory of Martinique (OSM), to the Inter Ministerial Anti-Drug Training Committee. T • French Guyana, Dominica, Gayana, Saint Lucia, St Kitts & Nevis, Surinam

12. RESULTS • Survey reveals that the use of alcohol combined with gasoline is NOT considered an emerging phenomenon or a new trend in the consumption. • Some street children admitted however that they did not know that this type of drug existed.

13. Results (cont’d) • They make considerable use however of psychotropic substances. • This is a public health problem with important - neurological - psychiatric - emotional consequences for these children and for society.

14. Results (cont’d) Street children and adolescents surveyed: • between the ages of 8 and 19 • both genders: • 269 boys and 16 girls. * 69% live on the street * 31 live in privately financed centers

15. Results ( cont’d ) Resources: • wash cars, unload buses, beg, ride bicycles, • play cards for money (poker), • wash street food vendors’ utensils • form gangs of delinquents who steal and run after buses.

16. Environment in which drugs are taken • Take drugs together • cigarettes and alcoholic beverages come first. • cobblers’ glue, thinner, marijuana come in second. • inhale thinner mixed with gasoline

17. Method of use / Administration: • Drug used :Buzz ,Rock ,Cigarettes, Cobbler’s glue,Thinner , Marijuana + mixtureAlcohol • begun taking drugs at a very early age, eight years old • they inhale, drink, smoke throughout the streets. • particularly like the smell / relaxing effect of mentholated cigarette

18. Method of use / administration: cont’d • Consumption of drugs varies from one neighborhood to another: • 100% of the population of addicts smokes; • 66.66% inhale the drugs; 33.33% eat them

19. Method of use / administration: cont’d • take marijuana in the form of tea, of gruel or cooked with rice. • pour gasoline over a piece of cloth and inhale it. • Others smoke marijuana rolled in wrapping paper.

20. Sanitary and physical consequences: • they feel calm, relaxed. • physical discomforts: insomnia, nausea, vomiting, headaches, • cramping, liver diseases and even spitting blood • admit having uncontrolled and unprotected sex

21. Psychological effects: • take drugs in search for pleasure and for sensations. • To forget their living conditions. • commit acts of violence, rape and theft. • incited to commit murder or suicide, to steal vehicles

22. Social consequences: • viewed negatively in the streets • represent the types of people that should be taken down. • steal and sell their bounty at a low price. • are constantly under the threat of arrest. • considered as vagrants, thugs, thieves, they say.

23. Social consequences: cont’d • are dressed in rags, in filthy clothes. • suffer all sorts of horrible physical punishments like when the soles of their feet are burnt.

24. Perception of users: • have a clear understanding of what drugs are. • had never used alcohol mixed with gasoline. • are aware of the existence of prevention programs

25. SUBSTANCESComposition of substances Solvents / Inhalants: • inhale contact glue which is a mixture of cobblers’ glue and thinner, or gasoline, cobblers’ glue alone. • use throughout the day. • short term, cause a slight excitation, tipsiness, dizziness difficulty to articulate, somnolence and hallucinations. • After a long period of use, difficulty seeing, feel anxiety and become paranoiac

26. Hallucinogens: • Buzz, which are dried marijuana leaves, • Sensimilia leaves which are crushed marijuana leaves, • Koya, which are creepers the leaves of which are dried than rolled with marijuana and carrot leaves. • smoked marijuana leaves are also called weed, or in Creole Holy Weed, and Grass – Digo Grass.

27. Uppers • Bonkalib: name given to the mixture of sodium bicarbonate and cocaine • In the short term, feeling of strength, an increased energy and do not feel either fatigue or hunger. • Juicy Lucy : marijuana and cocaine

28. Downers • Alcohol, beer, white rum and other alcoholic beverages • feel physical and mental depression in the middle of the street, • drunk, distracted, and dizzy.

29. Other mixtures: • whisky and cocaine , pepper and drugs. • cook rice with marijuana and boil weed in milk. • plants combined with medicine to obtain a specific drug called 35 degrees or also 5 stars • consume marine plants that give them stronger sensations than other drugs. • feel sleepy have headaches and palpitations. Others vomit and fell dizzy.

30. wood • Its exact composition has not been established, • a mixture of grated nutmeg mixed with marijuana and other unidentified substances. • Its absorption causes hallucinations, convulsions and makes them suicidal.

31. Perception of users – knowledge: • have recognized that drugs can kill, • prompt them to commit acts that are prohibited by society, like theft and rape • all drugs used for medical purposes are accepted • drugs like cocaine and marijuana are illegal.

32. Perception of non-users: • Professionals - treatment : never seen street children and adolescents under the influence of alcohol mixed with gasoline. • have seen some isolated cases of adolescents who have used this mixture. • Alcohol, sensimilia, crack / cocaine,contact glue (little rock) are the drugs that cause the most problems. the drugs that cause the most

33. Concerning the accessibility of drugs: • To purchase drugs, these children work in the streets • Get money from friends

34. Small scale trafficking • use the proceeds from their sales to go to school. • other option deal drugs in their environment.

35. CONTEXTSSocial environment: • inhale drugs on the middle of the street in small plastic recipients on street corners, under the merchants’ stands. • share a recipient or else they have their own little bottle. • inhale drugs at all hours of the day. • start very early in the morning and continue until twilight.

36. Sanitary context : • According to the healthcare workers: children take an injection shot between their toes

37. Prevention context: • are aware of the existence of prevention programs • don’t last long enough and have no follow-up. • Ask for creation of privately financed centers • recommend to be taught a trade and that they provided with a job • Training in civic education • that in each area, there be at least two social workers

38. Repression context • no penalty for those who use makeshift drugs. • street children and adolescents who are under the influence of drugs should not be jailed but rather be put in a rehabilitation center. • some children refuse all change. Some modify their behavior but are driven off by society. • When they come out of jail, they are not always welcomed in privately financed centers. • institutions also fear they would exercise a negative influence over those who have always lived in the privately financed centers. • detention centers don’t have any psychologists and do not contribute to their rehabilitation or their reintegration

39. Drug market / drug traffic network: • Haïti receives a considerable quantity of drugs from Colombia, Jamaica and Curacao. • Street children and adolescents are involved in many crimes committed on Haïti’s streets.

40. Recommendations • Establish a surveillance system to monitor the availability of easily accessible dugs: alcohol, marijuana, inhalants, and over the counter medicine. • Create more leisure activities • Create new civic education programs • Remove the abandoned children from the streets and place them in centers

41. Recommendations CONT’D • Build medical and detoxification centers • Organize awareness, valorization and integration campaigns • Integrate psychologists in the street children’s centers • Develop more drug prevention programs • Reduce the price of schooling, of healthcare and of food products • Establish vocational schools so that they can acquire a trade and not use drugs

42. BARRIERS • The lack of vision, the lack of awareness especially of those children who are addicts, • The lack of investments in families and in the community • Neglect and the lack of will • The insufficiency of financial resources.

43. HAITI THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT