Kids in Bulgaria are starting to take drugs at an increasingly lower age and are resorting to new types of narcotics, according to experts.

“Nowadays children start trying drugs at the age of 10-11, while earlier it was 12-14. Besides that, the type of drugs they use have changed. Amphetamines and ecstasy have taken over the heroin. They do not form as strong addiction as heroin does, but cause irreparable consequences on the psyche after a continuous and systematic use,” said Valentin Minkov, psychologist at the Information Center for Preventing Drug Abuse in the Bulgarian city of Pleven.

According to statistics from the National Center for Drugs, the drug usage among young people, especially students, has increased. People between 15 and 34 years represent about 70-85% of all the people in Bulgaria who use drugs.

Every third high school student and 35.2% of the students overall have tried drugs at least once. Bulgarian experts on drugs said they expect a raise in the usage of amphetamines in the next few years.

More than 300 000 people in Bulgaria suffer from drug addiction, with about 30 000 heroin addicts.

Between 430 000 and 475 000 Bulgarians in the age group of 15-64 have trial drugs at least once in their lives.

The most popular drug in the country is marijuana, followed by synthetic drugs like amphetamines and ecstasy-like drugs.

Between 2003 and 2010 the number of programs, providing treatment for drug addiction with methadone and substitol, have raised from 1 to 31. Most of the patients have to pay the treatment themselves. This costs from BGN 100 to BGN 350 per month and it continues for years.

“The time period for the methadone treatment depends on the time of the drug usage and whether the patient has other diseases,” Tsvetana Stoykova, psychologist and psychotherapist, said.

According to Stoykova, the EU provides treatment for 30% to 50% of the drug users in the countries. In her words, in order for this to happen in Bulgaria, the country needs to have 3-4 more treatment programs.