Council of Europe urges Moldovan detainees who use drugs to accept methadone treatment

The Council of Europe encourages the Moldovan prisoners-drug users to receive treatment with methadone. Eight trainers have been instructed and will, for their part, teach other specialists how to provide the necessary medical assistance, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a conference centering on the opioid substitution program, Deputy Minister of Justice Vladimir Grosu said that they hope the quality of the medical assistance in penitentiaries will be improved. “We have groups of convicts who use drugs and can transmit certain diseases and endanger thus the health of other persons. Therefore, we should cooperate with international organizations. We will continue to cooperate with the High Council and the Pompidou Group that aim to fight drug addiction by different modern treatment methods,” said Vladimir Grosu. According to the executive secretary of the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe Patrick Penninckx, the methadone treatment is recognized internationally. “Receiving medical assistance is a fundamental right of the detainees. We should not make additional accusations against these persons because they are drug users. When the HIV/AIDS and hepatitis are widely spread, we must know how they can be avoided. It is important that a country cover the costs of all the prevention measures even if they are high. Moldova is not alone and its partners will help it deal with this problem,” he stated. Natalia Borduja, deputy head of the medical division of the Department of Penitentiary Institutions, said that methadone is a medicine recommended by the World Health Organization for treating persons who take opioid drugs that are produced from green poppy seeds. It is a synthetic opium product administered in small doses to reduce dependence on drugs. The treatment with methadone was used in Moldova for the first time in 2005. As many as 280 persons now receive such treatment, 52 of whom are prisoners. The daily dose administered to a patient costs the state 6 lei. The medicine is issued free of charge by narcological dispensaries, under the strict surveillance of the doctor.