Alliance for Public Health (hereinafter – Alliance) decided to make a contribution into marking the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, within the global Support. Don’t Punish! advocacy campaign, and inform stakeholders, governmental authorities and mass media about the real microscopic volumes of the leakage of substitution therapy drugs into the illicit market.
Opioid substitution treatment (OST) program – the biggest in the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia – has been implemented in Ukraine for 12 years already! Today this effective and evidence-based approach to the treatment of drug dependence and prevention of the spread of HIV and hepatitis C allows 8,727 patients with chronic opioid dependence to receive treatment in 173 healthcare facilities in all regions of Ukraine, apart from temporarily occupied areas in eastern Ukraine. 7,779 patients receive methadone-based substitution therapy (with tablets or liquid methadone) and 948 patients receive buprenorphine tablets.
Over this period, there were numerous studies, which proved the effectiveness of OST. This therapy for people who use drugs is guaranteed by p. 8 art. 4 of the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of the Spread of Diseases Associated with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Legal and Social Protection of People Living with HIV” dd. 12.12.1991 N 1972-XII and by the National Targeted Social Program on Countering HIV/AIDS in 2014-2018 approved with the Law of Ukraine dd. 20.10.2014 N 1708-VII. A series of orders of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine regulate the procedure of OST provision, volumes of the drugs to be used and control over their turnover.
Since 2005, 1,462 kg of methadone and 34.4 kg of buprenorphine were delivered to the country in accordance with the annual quotas of narcotic substances for OST approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine within the relevant National Program, which is co-implemented by Alliance for Public Health. In Ukraine, the average daily dose of methadone in OST programs is 80 mg, buprenorphine – 10 mg per patient.
One of the traditional arguments against introduction of OST, which were voiced by representatives of the previous law enforcement system, which for many years maintained strong resistance to implementation of this method of treatment at all levels, were unjustified assumptions concerning allegedly enormous volumes of the OST drugs leakage and illicit trafficking in those drugs. In previous years, such statements have been repeatedly heard from the head of one of the most corrupted departments of former militia – Department against Drug Trafficking of the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine – mostly with references to confidential “information collected” and “criminal cases initiated”.
Today Alliance decided to inform all interested parties, including current law enforcers and mass media, with the real statistics of the “leakage” of OST drugs and illicit trafficking in such drugs and show that they make an absurdly small share in the total scope of drug turnover in our country.
In the recent months, Alliance analyzed court judgments related to OST or narcotic drugs used in OST, which were entered into the Unified State Register of Court Judgments.
As a result, we identified and analyzed 333 basic and 84 associated with them court judgments on criminal cases and administrative offenses, issued during the period of almost 10 years!
The analysis showed that within those cases law enforcers documented and withdrew only 25 grams of methadone and 0.32 gram of buprenorphine, which got into the illicit market from OST programs.
Thus, the proportion of OST drugs, which leaked into the illicit market in this period of time due to various circumstances is really meager as compared to the volumes of drugs imported or procured in Ukraine during the same period: for methadone it is0.0017% and for buprenorphine – 0.00093%!
For reference, earlier in June during just one police intervention in Kherson officers of the National Police withdrew over 2 kg of illegal methadone (which is in no way related to OST programs) produced in a clandestine laboratory from an organized drug crime syndicate, which is 77 times more than the quantity of the main OST drug, which got into the illicit market in all the years of OST program implementation in Ukraine!
So we have to say that concerns of skeptics and unjustified assumptions of corrupted law enforces on the dangers of OST are in no way confirmed in practice.
By the way, arms from military warehouses, currency assets and valuables from banks or jewelry stores also sometimes fall into the wrong hands. But it seems that in those areas the scope of leakages is not that meager…
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For information: This press release is issued within the global «Support. Don’t Punish!»advocacy campaign, which is marked on 26 June 2016 in over 100 cities of the world. On this day, tens of thousands of civil society activists from all over the world traditionally appeal to their governments to stop cruel and senseless policy of the War on Drugs. Official website of the campaign: http://supportdontpunish.org
Alliance for Public Health is a leading non-governmental professional organization which makes a significant impact on the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis and other socially dangerous diseases in Ukraine through providing financial and technical support to relevant programs, which cover over 280,000 members of most vulnerable populations, which is the highest indicator in Europe. Alliance traditionally takes part in «Support. Don’t Punish»! campaign. Information about last year’s event: http://www.aidsalliance.org.ua/ru/news/pdf/01-12_2015/06/Drugs_Alliance_26.06.2015_ukr.pdf
1 For comparison, according to the official data of the Supreme Court of Ukraine only in 2015 all Ukrainian courts heard 12 thousand cases related to offences in the area of trafficking in drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues or precursors (articles 305–320 of the Criminal Code).