Claims of widespread drug use among schoolchildren are unfounded -  official statement

ArmInfo. Claims of widespread drug use among schoolchildren are unfounded. Narek Sargsyan, press secretary for the Armenian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), stated this on his Facebook page, responding to a widely circulated post titled "Drugs Have Reached Armenian Schools."

He noted that the website that published the post had, in turn,  republished it from a social media user.  Sargsyan stated that, in  accordance with the policy of the Armenian Ministry of Internal  Affairs, for each such publication, they contact the author and  request specific information for further fact-based action.

"Contact was also established with the author of the aforementioned  publication, but, as in other cases, the social media user did not  provide a report, did not specify the school in question, or provide  any other information," the MIA press secretary noted.

In this regard, he recalled an incident that occurred at a school in  the village of Mkhchyan. As Sargsyan noted, this case received  widespread public attention because it was reported that high school  students had hooked elementary school students on drugs. "A criminal  case was opened, and test results were obtained indicating the  absence of drugs, but the discussions surrounding the refuted  incident were not as intense or extensive," Sargsyan noted.

In this regard, he cited statistics showing that six cases of drug  trafficking among minors were recorded in 2025, seven in 2024, and  seven minors are currently being treated at the National Drug  Addiction Treatment Center for drug use.

"We urge you to refrain from disseminating unverified and unfounded  information. Minors should be treated with caution. Every thoughtless  statement can become grounds for stigmatization," Sargsyan concluded.

As a reminder, in May 2025, lawyer Gohar Meloyan warned of the  state's lack of an adequate response to the problem of drug use in  the country, especially among minors. To support her claims, she  cited an incident that occurred at a school in the village of  Mkhchyan in the Ararat region. It turned out that a group of  12th-graders forced two fourth-graders to try drugs. The children  subsequently developed drug addiction and began stealing money from  home to buy drugs from the older students who had previously hooked  them. Investigative authorities later declared this information  false.