2000 km of Baltic drug policies: from Vilnius to Tallinn

News

2000 km of Baltic drug policies: from Vilnius to Tallinn

17 June 2016
Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN)

In late spring of 2016, a team of EHRN and DUNewsrepresentatives visited six cities in the Baltic States: Vilnius, Kaunas, Visaginas, Riga, Tallinn and Tartu. We covered about 2,000 km and met with community representatives, harm reduction program staff, high-level officials and representatives of the academic community. We wanted to obtain first-hand information about how the Baltic drug policy worked in practice. We wanted to understand how statements made by these countries’ representatives from the rostrum of the Special Session of the UN General Assembly on the world drug problem correspond to the realities of people who use drugs and NGOs that run harm reduction programs.

For example, the Minister of Health of Lithuania stated at the Special Session that his country recognized the effectiveness of harm reduction programs and was ready to promote those programs in the region. However, when we visited the town of Visaginas, situated 140 km away from Vilnius, we learned that funding for the needle exchange program was minimal and usually came with a five-month delay. If the program does not secure permanent funding before December this year, this long-existing program will have to close. An OST program in Visaginas has never opened despite the huge demand for it in the city that holds a "leading" position in the country in terms of its level of drug use.

Click here to read the full article.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Thumbnail: Wikipedia