Twelve years old and an addict
Kirsis Díaz
SD. Between 2012 and 2013 in the Dominican Republic there were 156 minors found to be consuming drugs. At the present time only 43 are receiving assistance in two of the four institutions that do this sort of thing in the country. They are children marked by the dysfunctionality and the destructuring of the family, victims of people close to them who involve them in this practice and make them commit innumerable crimes.
Matias, at 12 years of age had his first experience with marijuana. A first try that put him into a deep sleep for three hours and which, upon awakening, led him to try more. This led to a routine that involved assaults and homicides, until he reached his current age of 17.
He would go where there were older boys, that were gathered in a basketball court in the Los Guaricanos sector of the municipality of North Santo Domingo, and where, without cost, they gave him some of the drug. With them and a friend of 13, they drank, smoked cigarettes and marijuana and later, snorted cocaine. Nevertheless, these gifts did not last long. Three months later, he was forced to steal money from his grandmother, and together with the same companions that at first supplied the drugs, he joined in the robberies and assaults in order to maintain his vice.
Controlled by the drug, Matias did not know faces or places or how many assaults he carried out. He only knew that there were many and that with them he took the life of several persons, including fathers and mothers, who he intercepted with an illegal firearm.
How many persons lost their lives in these assaults?
"Together with several friends, like eight, and three by myself," he says. Eleven dead, which now he has trouble remembering.
How old were these persons?
"The victims (as he refers to the persons assaulted) were young, they probably were between 20 and 30."
Why did you kill them?
"These were not my decisions, it was the situation, because they resisted me. They thought that it was a joke, they did not think that one would go so far, and the situation forced me to kill them," he answered.
At five feet eight inches, strongly built and with dark skin, Matias tells that because of the assaults, he already had problems with the law, and because of that, he usually went out into the streets after 8 o'clock at night to trap his victims.
"Many times the police managed to chase us. And we managed to escape several times, but just once they were able to arrest me. Then I was released on my signature. I had a trial, I only went once. I was fourteen," the adolescent confessed. By that time he had taken part in the death of two persons, so that, if they had kept him in custody, according to Law 136-03, he would have had to serve between one and five years in prison.
Four months ago, and after the death of a friend who was shot and killed by the authorities when he was going to buy drugs, Matias decided to get rid of his addiction, and now is in a recovery center for minors.
The most recent reports from the Attorney General of the Republic indicate that between 2008 and 2011, the Juvenile Penal Prosecutor registered 12,992 cases of minors that committed different crimes all over the national territory. Drug involvement led the number of cases during this period, with a total of 3,323, going from 810 cases the first year to 887 in the last year.
For simple robbery and aggravated assault, there were 5,278 cases reported in the same period; for illegal firearms, 768; and for homicides, 529. The latter were part of the 9,725 homicides which occurred in those four years in the entire country, and for which 6,372 were committed by firearms, according to the information from the National Statistical Office (ONE), published in the report "The Dominican Republic in numbers, 2012."
Matias spent as much as RD$2,000 a day for his habit, and nearly RD$60,000 a month.
He smoked as many as three packs of cigarettes a day. Marijuana he used only a few times; his greatest consumption was cocaine. A "line" of this drug cost him between RD$50 and RD$75, and only gave him one dose. When he obtained more money in his assaults, he asked for two or three grams more to be weighed out.
Information based on the patients that have entered the institutions that exist in the country for rehabilitation of addicts (Hogar Crea, Ascayd y la Fe, Ninos del Camino and the Center for Compete Attention to Boys, Girls and Adolescents) reveal that marijuana and cocaine are the substances used most frequently by minors in the national territory.
Damage to health
According to the psychiatric specialist of the Phoenix Foundation, and expert in the use, abuse and dependency on psychoactive substances, Rafael Johnson, the immersion in drugs before the age 18 or 20 years of ages, the time in which the brain finishes its formation, makes the infant lose important neurological areas, which lead him to adopt bad behavior in his social development.
It is because of this, according to this expert, that the majority of these minors, in general terms, end up abandoning school.
Matias, at 12 years of age had his first experience with marijuana. A first try that put him into a deep sleep for three hours and which, upon awakening, led him to try more. This led to a routine that involved assaults and homicides, until he reached his current age of 17.
He would go where there were older boys, that were gathered in a basketball court in the Los Guaricanos sector of the municipality of North Santo Domingo, and where, without cost, they gave him some of the drug. With them and a friend of 13, they drank, smoked cigarettes and marijuana and later, snorted cocaine. Nevertheless, these gifts did not last long. Three months later, he was forced to steal money from his grandmother, and together with the same companions that at first supplied the drugs, he joined in the robberies and assaults in order to maintain his vice.
Controlled by the drug, Matias did not know faces or places or how many assaults he carried out. He only knew that there were many and that with them he took the life of several persons, including fathers and mothers, who he intercepted with an illegal firearm.
How many persons lost their lives in these assaults?
"Together with several friends, like eight, and three by myself," he says. Eleven dead, which now he has trouble remembering.
How old were these persons?
"The victims (as he refers to the persons assaulted) were young, they probably were between 20 and 30."
Why did you kill them?
"These were not my decisions, it was the situation, because they resisted me. They thought that it was a joke, they did not think that one would go so far, and the situation forced me to kill them," he answered.
At five feet eight inches, strongly built and with dark skin, Matias tells that because of the assaults, he already had problems with the law, and because of that, he usually went out into the streets after 8 o'clock at night to trap his victims.
"Many times the police managed to chase us. And we managed to escape several times, but just once they were able to arrest me. Then I was released on my signature. I had a trial, I only went once. I was fourteen," the adolescent confessed. By that time he had taken part in the death of two persons, so that, if they had kept him in custody, according to Law 136-03, he would have had to serve between one and five years in prison.
Four months ago, and after the death of a friend who was shot and killed by the authorities when he was going to buy drugs, Matias decided to get rid of his addiction, and now is in a recovery center for minors.
The most recent reports from the Attorney General of the Republic indicate that between 2008 and 2011, the Juvenile Penal Prosecutor registered 12,992 cases of minors that committed different crimes all over the national territory. Drug involvement led the number of cases during this period, with a total of 3,323, going from 810 cases the first year to 887 in the last year.
For simple robbery and aggravated assault, there were 5,278 cases reported in the same period; for illegal firearms, 768; and for homicides, 529. The latter were part of the 9,725 homicides which occurred in those four years in the entire country, and for which 6,372 were committed by firearms, according to the information from the National Statistical Office (ONE), published in the report "The Dominican Republic in numbers, 2012."
Matias spent as much as RD$2,000 a day for his habit, and nearly RD$60,000 a month.
He smoked as many as three packs of cigarettes a day. Marijuana he used only a few times; his greatest consumption was cocaine. A "line" of this drug cost him between RD$50 and RD$75, and only gave him one dose. When he obtained more money in his assaults, he asked for two or three grams more to be weighed out.
Information based on the patients that have entered the institutions that exist in the country for rehabilitation of addicts (Hogar Crea, Ascayd y la Fe, Ninos del Camino and the Center for Compete Attention to Boys, Girls and Adolescents) reveal that marijuana and cocaine are the substances used most frequently by minors in the national territory.
Damage to health
According to the psychiatric specialist of the Phoenix Foundation, and expert in the use, abuse and dependency on psychoactive substances, Rafael Johnson, the immersion in drugs before the age 18 or 20 years of ages, the time in which the brain finishes its formation, makes the infant lose important neurological areas, which lead him to adopt bad behavior in his social development.
It is because of this, according to this expert, that the majority of these minors, in general terms, end up abandoning school.
Kirsis Díaz
Continuar con Google