Drug addiction is high in Israel and there is a correlation between drug usage and social circumstances, according to the findings of a public committee which has been studying the problem for the past five years.
Prof. Kalman Mann, chairman of the committee, said at a press conference here today that there are some 4,000-6,000 addicts in Israel. About 50 percent of underprivileged youth use drugs compared to 3-5 percent of users among youth who are students or gainfully empoyed, the study found.
Mann said drug addition in Israel is not epidemic but it could spread and therefore the seriousness of the phenomnenon shoiuld not be underestimated. The committee did not recommend severe penalties for the use of drugs but neither did it suggest liberalization of the use of "soft drugs."
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