Problem of drug addiction in the youth in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania of the RF North Caucasian Federal District

This article is based on the large-scale survey “the problem of drug addiction among the youth in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania of the RF North Caucasian Federal District”. In April-May North Ossetian Center of Social Research of the Institute of Socio-Political Research RAS together with North Ossetian State University after K.L. Khetagurov conducted a monitoring aimed at evaluating the drug abuse situation in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and identifying the causes of drug abuse among young citizens of the republic. It studied the system of beliefs, habits and aspirations of young people. The research focused on the sociological assessment of the drug abuse situation in the Republic of North Ossetia and it was based on the study of systems of beliefs, habits and preferences of the residents, as well as on the identification of the reasons for the spread of drug addiction among the population. The achievement of this goal required solution of the following tasks: • to evaluate beliefs, value systems, life plans, the state of health of the North Ossetia-Alania citizens, learn their opinion on the possibility of rational leisure time and recreation by means of monitoring; • to assess bad habits of the republic citizens, estimate the society’s relation to the problems of drug addiction and drug addicts, analyze the reasons for the emergence and existence of this phenomenon in the society; • to evaluate effectiveness of the measures to combat drug addiction; • to identify reasons for drug addiction, most frequently used types of drugs, the cost of a single dose, a market place and consumers’ access to drugs; • to assess practical activities aimed at improving the drug abuse situation in the republic. The sample size was 600 people