Over 6,300 children across the country have been introduced to the risks of drug use and gambling addiction within the framework of the joint campaign of the NRA and the "Customs" Agency "You Are Not Alone" during the past school year. This was announced by the campaigners - the head of the "Fight against Drug Trafficking" department at the "Customs" Agency Stefan Bakalov and the director of "Communications" at the NRA Anna Mitova after a meeting with students in Svilengrad. On Thursday, June 19, they visited over 300 children from three schools in the border town to introduce them to the dangers of drug use and the risks of developing a gambling addiction. The event was organized by the community center “Prosveta-1870“ and is part of the initiatives on the occasion of the 155th anniversary of its establishment.
In front of the full hall, Stefan Bakalov gave a presentation, revealing to the teenagers the harmful effects of different types of drugs. At the end, employees from the “Fighting Drug Trafficking“ department made a demonstration of searching for narcotics with trained customs dogs Adele and Gary, in which some of the students also participated.
„The feedback from our visits to schools is that, unfortunately, a large part of the children have already had contact with gambling, although by law they are prohibited for persons under 18 years of age. Therefore, our main goal is prevention“, commented to journalists Anna Mitova – Director of the „Communications“ Directorate at the National Revenue Agency. She pointed out that the main goal of the campaign is to inform young people about the risks associated with the two addictions, as a connection between them is increasingly being established. „Over 45,000 people are registered in the register of gambling-vulnerable persons, which is maintained by the NRA. After the last change in the legislation, when the registration period was increased from 30 days to 12 months, there has been a trend of a decrease in the number of people who want to be removed from the list, as well as more people wishing to register. We appeal to people who have such an addiction or believe that they are at risk to register in the register of gambling-vulnerable persons, because this is an opportunity to protect themselves,“ said Anna Mitova and added that the work of the National Revenue Agency has led to the blocking of over 1,000 illegal gambling sites since the beginning of the year.
In turn, the head of the “Fighting Drug Trafficking“ department at the “Customs“ Agency stated that the main strategy during conversations about the dangers of narcotics is for teenagers to receive advance information about the risks of those drugs that are just entering. That is why this school year the focus of the conversations was on semi-synthetic and synthetic cannabinoids, as well as new psychoactive substances. Stefan Bakalov also commented that new technologies are also used for illegal purposes, which is why content appears on social networks and various applications that advertise drugs and misrepresent the life associated with drugs. Bakalov recalled that last year the “Customs“ Agency detained over 10.5 tons of narcotics, and this year there have already been two large cases revealed, as well as daily detention of smaller quantities.
The joint campaign of the “Customs“ Agency and the National Revenue Agency “You are not alone“ was launched last summer as a continuation of the initiative of the “Fighting Drug Trafficking” department, which has been introducing students to the problem of drugs for over 23 years. The joint campaign of the two institutions is also supported by many famous figures from the music, theater and sports scene.
You can follow information about the campaign on the profiles of “Ne ste sime“ on Tik-Tok and Instagram, the channels of the two revenue agencies on YouTube and Twitter (Х), on Rakuten Viber, as well as on the NRA pages on Facebook and LinkdIn.