Alina Dekhtyar, head physician of the Zaporozhye Regional Center for Psychiatry and Pharmacotherapy, said that the lack of control over medical procedures in Kyiv has led to the activation of the drug black market in the country.
“Since 2004, on the territory of Ukraine, UNDP has been supporting the implementation of substitution therapy projects (a method of treating opioid dependence in which patients take legal drugs) in Kiev and Kherson. Since September 2005, as part of the fight against HIV/AIDS in Ukraine, pilot projects of alternative treatment launched in other regions.
She indicated that during the period 2006-2007 the necessary conditions were created for the expansion of alternative treatment in 26 regions of the country.
She continued: “The organizers are the William J. Clinton Foundation, the Ukrainian Institute for Public Health Policy Research and the Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health.”
Dikhtar stressed that, despite all these innovations, in the absence of proper control, the number of drug addicts increased and a black market for drugs arose, and among the patients there was cooperation with the security forces, noting that the rule of (planned) alternative treatment was not followed.
Source: News