Julia González Alonso is a specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

She has been director of the Spanish Observatory on Drugs, responsible for the State Permanent Information System on Drug Addictions; Head of the Social Welfare Service of the Junta de Castilla y León; Head of the Health Records Service of the Sub-directorate General for Health Promotion and Epidemiology.

She has participated in the elaboration of Organic Laws. Technical Advisor at the General Directorate of Public Health and External Health. Collaborates with the Spanish Government Delegation for the National Drug Plan. Ministry of Health and Social Policy.

In her intervention she promotes different reflections to keep in mind in the complex world we have with drugs. She noted that although each culture has its drug of choice, currently the management of new technologies has significantly changed the landscape of substance abuse. Internet access is general and the offer that can be made through this medium is embedded in the world of drug addiction. Thus, addiction to chemical substances is linked to addiction without substances, such as gambling, sex or new technologies.

We are at a time when the approach in the fight against addiction has changed, where we try not to eliminate consumption but rather to reduce risk and harm.

Reflecting on everything has stated that addiction in the 21st century is a public health problem and not a public order. The reflection of the social treatment that is carried out of drug use emphasizes that the consumption should not be normalized, regulating the places where it is consumed with a certain pattern, such as binge drinking. Likewise, we must consider the change in the consumption of drugs that is being produced, so in the consumption of alcohol it has gone from “I got drunk because I drank” to “I'm going to drink to get drunk” which is indicating a pattern of consumption in the Mediterranean countries different from what was done in the last century, a pattern closer to the consumption pattern of the Nordic countries.

Reflecting on all this, it is possible to observe that there are also changes in the risks associated with consumption: sexual practices, violence, aggression, risk perception and changes in the social norms and regulations of consumption. 

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