Is there life after drugs?

As serious as drug addiction may be, treatment, willpower and adequate help can lead to abstinence and help build a stable and fulfilling life.

Roxana Vasile, 09.09.2026, 13:00

The European Commissioner for internal affairs and migration Magnus Brunner and the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) presented the 2026 European Drug Report in the first half of June.

Based on data from 29 countries (27 EU member states plus Norway and Turkey) the document shows that as they have become more available, more diverse and more potent, drugs have an increasingly negative impact on the health of consumers. At the same time, drug trafficking is a major threat to security on the continent. Organised crime networks are diversifying trafficking routes and methods of evading controls, using intimidation and violence, and recruiting and exploiting vulnerable young people.

The anti-drug expert Cătălin Țone gave Radio Romania more details about the European Report:

Cătălin Țone: “There is data that raises concern, in my opinion. Basically, the document officially announces that a new drug appears in Europe almost every week. Increasingly powerful drugs, which are increasingly difficult to monitor, are flooding the market. The diversity of substances is great and the possibility of them causing serious effects exists almost at every step. The report also warns against synthetic opioids as the main cause for concern, because they are very concentrated: thousands of lethal doses can be made from a single gram of certain substances.”

Georgiana Drăgan was addicted to drugs for eight years.

Georgiana Drăgan: “At 17 I started using marijuana occasionally, for three years. Then, unfortunately, after I went into a relationship with a boy addicted to heroin, I started using this drug and a severe heroin addiction followed, which lasted five years. It had consequences on all aspects of my life, from undermining all the relationships I had, to the inability to keep a job, to various offences, including thefts, robberies, loans against fictitious documents, etc. But the most painful were the problems I caused my family, especially my mother, and the state of helplessness I had reached.”

In 2009, when she realised that she was no longer in control and that she had to stop, Georgiana joined a rehab programme:

Georgiana Drăgan: “The lowest point and what led me to make the decision was the fact that I had lost everything. From a girl with aspirations for the future, a girl with potential, an award-winning athlete, an Olympian at school, I had ended up sleeping on cardboard boxes in the stairwell of an apartment building and having absolutely nothing to fight for. That was the moment when I realised that if I didn’t make a change, I would end up in prison or in the grave. And somehow this realisation made me think about myself, the person I had been in the past, the child and teenager with dreams and aspirations, and I finally made a decision. But the decision wouldn’t have been enough if I hadn’t had a place to recover, because I had wanted to quit before, but the fact that there was something concrete to help me this time around made all the difference.”

Not only did Georgiana Drăgan quit drugs, but she became the director of the Teen Challenge centre for girls, near Bucharest. Nine girls are currently enrolled in the rehab and social integration programme, which lasts between 9 months and a year for adults. And the approach is holistic:

Georgiana Drăgan: “We recommend a detox period before joining our program, because these people need to be helped to cope with the symptoms of withdrawal. But beyond that, an approach is needed in which they are helped to rebuild their lives from scratch, and this is done by establishing new life principles, by changing values. People who lied, manipulated, who were used to making a combination to get money, should now have healthy principles that will help not only during the recovery period, but also afterwards. Our schedule is well structured, starting from the time we wake up until the time we go to bed, there are diverse activities throughout the day, so that neither boredom nor overload or fatigue occurs. We have a mentoring system, a form of counselling, we have courses, so we also address this educational part and, very importantly, our programme addresses one’s deepest side, because each of us has their own inner universe, their own identity… So the first phase is the recovery phase, and then there is an internship period in which responsibilities increase, privileges also increase, they get a phone, they have interaction with the outside world. They also have the opportunity to help other people in their turn, thus becoming role models and giving hope.”

The success rate, says the director of the Teen Challenge centre Georgiana Drăgan, is very high. Many of those who chose to follow this program have finished it. This shows that, no matter how serious the drug addiction is, through specialised treatment, willpower and adequate help, addicted people can achieve abstinence and build a stable and fulfilled life. (AMP)