There has been a dramatic fall in the age of substance initiation to just 10-12, manager of Bucharest's 'St. Stelian' Hospital Teodora Ciolompea told the Senate's Committee on Human Rights, Equal Opportunities, Cults and Minorities.
"There is a lack of access to treatment for 14 to 18-year-olds. We can only admit adults to the hospital. So this would be a first requirement, also, I think it would be very important to resume discussions on the mental health law, which should be updated to meet the requirements of the European Mental Health Strategy, which is currently in the works," said Ciolompea.
She said that around 3,000 patients are currently given drug substitution treatment at the 'St. Stelian' Hospital and the 'Obregia' Hospital in Bucharest, after using injectable substances.
"Apart from that, there is the acute case service which virtually has about 2,000 patients treated every year, but the number is growing from year to year and there is also the outpatient post-detox treatment, which is also very important, with a brief hospitalization for a maximum of 10 days. Services could be further extended, because the patients also need psychological counseling and social assistance," said the manager of the 'St. Stelian' Hospital.
As part of the discussions for the review of policies for the prevention and combat of illicit drug trafficking and use, as well as for the integrated assistance to substance consumers, Eugen Hriscu, a therapist at the ALIAT Clinic, said that Romania has big issues with the treatment of underage drug addicts and the only solution "is to tell a parent of a dependent child to wait until the child turns 18 or to have them admitted to a psychiatric ward from where they will be discharged after 7 days without any significant improvement."
"Romania has in the first place an institutional problem - which is called the National Anti-Drug Agency, a body under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior tasked with doing two completely different things - on the one hand arrest the consumer, because Romanian law criminalizes possession for consumption, and on the other hand do prevention and treatment. These are two diametrically opposed activities and because of this the number of convictions is on the rise, the number of drug seizures goes upwards too, but the treatment and prevention part fares poorly," said Eugen Hriscu. AGERPRES