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South African officials angry about school gang-rape

Two boys participated to a gang-rape on Thursday when they drugged two girls and raped one of them during school hours at Jules High School in Jepperstown, South Africa. They filmed this on their cellphones and they will appear to the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court today.

The problem that rises from this rape is the incapacity of South African school to respond to this horrible act. Right groups and ministers have already firmly responded to this issue while it seems that the school’s officials instead of protecting the victim’s rights were more concerned not to upset the boys during their exams. Also, the minister for women, children and persons with disabilities, Lulu Xingwana said that all authority people suspecting child abuse must report this kind of incidents and this is also available when it comes to teachers.

With one of the highest incidence of rape worldwide, South Africa’s minister for children said that sexual and physical abuse of young people should have zero tolerance from authorities. Although the boys will appear in front of the justice, they were not immediately arrested because that could lead to a trauma during the exams. Moreover, the teachers saw the video with the rape and instead of reporting it to authority, they found it rather “hilarious”.

A minister in the presidency already interfered and urged to authorities to treat this case as a priority while already the worldwide media has been outraged by the way officials deal with these extreme cases. Collins Chabane added that abuse should not be tolerated in South Africa society, let alone in their schools, however this seems to happen more often lately. Although three boys participated to this gang-rape, only two were arrested yesterday while it seems the third boy was not involved “physically“. The investigation is still on.

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Shocking study reveals that alcohol is more harmful than heroin

david nuttThe ex UK chief drugs adviser, Prof. David Nutt, published a study which reveals that alcohol is more harmful than other dangerous drugs such as crack or heroin. This study was based on a top 20 drugs ranked on 16 measures of harms to users and society. According to it, cigarettes and cocaine are placed on an equal level and surprisingly, LSD and ecstasy are at the bottom of this top, as considered less damaging.

The « harm scale » was creating taking in consideration each possible harm these drugs might come with, from mental damage to crime, addiction and even costs for the country’s economy and communities implications, to sum it up, 16 criteria were involved. The working group consisted of Prof. Nutt, Dr. Les King and two other drugs experts. There were two « harming ranks », one for individuals and the second one to society.

Unexpected, the study revealed that although heroin, crack and crystal meth are the most damaging for each individual using its, when it comes to society it seems that alcohol makes its room near heroin and crack ; more than that, when the scores were added together the results were shocking – when it comes to society, alcohol is the most harmful drug. Today’s drug classification system seems to be in contrary with this study however the authors say the present classification should be changed according to the harm each drug brings with. This is not the first time when Prof Nutt argues with the recent classification system while he had an attempt of doing this in 2007 as well, however failling in doing it.

Prof Nutt brought as argument the fact that alcohol is more widely used therefore millions and millions of people can reach it, become addicted to it and then become a menace to society. On the other hand, even if cocaine is way more addictive it is not so widely used thus putting it on a lower level when it comes to the harm that using it brings to society.

A spokesman for the Wine and Spirit Trade Association argue with this study’s results while it is natural that alcohol is widely spread as it is used even as a part of social interactions ; he agreed though that alcohol misuse is a major problem most countries are facing but it isn’t the major issue people have to face with.