En el Sudeste europeo, las sanciones por delitos de drogas continúan siendo altas, aunque se han hecho algunos esfuerzos para reducir las penas por uso y posesión de drogas. En el área de la salud los gobiernos han respondido al incremento del uso de nuevas sustancias psicoactivas con esfuerzos de aplicación de la ley. Paralelamente, la crisis económica ha tenido efectos devastadores sobre la disponibilidad de programas de reducción de daños.

Disponible en: http://idpc.net/es/region/sudeste-europeo

Integra: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.

Linkeando cada uno de los países puedes acceder a un informe completo elaborado por The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)

Production

SEE is not a major drug producer. Local cannabis production for domestic use is increasing in Albania, Bulgaria and Romania. Albania also produces small amounts of opium, while Bulgaria produces relatively small quantities of chemical precursors.

Trafficking

The region is an important trans-shipment area for heroin from Afghanistan to Western Europe. The northern Balkan route passes through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary en route to Austria and the rest of Western Europe. The Southern Balkan route leads to Italy through Greece, FYR Macedonia and Albania. An increasing number of cocaine shipments from South America are transported to Eastern European countries and subsequently through the Balkan routes to Western Europe. Traffic in precursors, on the other hand, follows the Balkan routes in the opposite direction towards Turkey and Afghanistan. Declining heroin seizures were reported in 2010 in most countries while cocaine seizures in the region tripled. Increased demand could be one factor underlying this increase; organised crime groups shifting from heroin to cocaine trafficking could be another (World Drug Report 2013).

Authorities in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina explain the lower seizures and availability of heroin in their countries by the fact that the Balkan route has undergone a number of internal shifts since Romania and Bulgaria became members of the European Union (EU). From Bulgaria, traffickers reportedly go through Romania because of less rigorous border checks compared to when using the route going eastwards through Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Drug Situation Analysis Report. 2011).

Consumption

Cannabis remains the most widely used drug in SEE. An increase in the consumption of Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS) has been reported in the region, while cocaine and opioid use has remained stable. Nevertheless, the estimated annual prevalence of opioid use (commonly injected heroin) in the region remains higher than the global average, at 1.2% of the adult population.

The use of new psychoactive substances, commonly called “legal highs”, is increasing in the region and they are progressively becoming popular drugs in some countries – in particular Serbia and Romania – because of their availability and legal status. In Romania, the use of legal highs boomed in 2009. During 2010-2012, legal highs have reportedly replaced heroin in Bucharest, with increasing injection rates (as the substances have to be injected more often than heroin). In turn, this exacerbated the risk of an HIV epidemic in the country. In order to respond to this trend, Romanian authorities criminalised 44 plants and substances in 2010 and closed the “smart shops” where the substances were being sold. These measures have led to the legal highs trade moving online and potentially more harmful patterns of use.

Finally, the illicit use of sedatives and tranquilizers is common in several SEE countries, such as Romania. However, the topic is undocumented and needs more attention from policy makers and service providers.

Legislation and policies around drugs are being updated and harmonised with European Union standards as part of the pre-accession process for candidate countries, such as Serbia, Montenegro and FYR Macedonia. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are also potential EU candidates and therefore have an interest in reconfiguring their drug policies in line with the EU Drug Strategy for 2013-2020 and upcoming action plans (Drug Situation Analysis Report). This involves the adoption of a balanced approach incorporating both demand and supply reduction activities.

Public health

Heroin use is the primary cause of drug-related deaths in the region, and is responsible for most drug-related problems, especially among young people and vulnerable groups. The rise in legal highs use in SEE can lead to an increased number of drug-related deaths, but these deaths are more difficult to document since the symptoms are very diverse and lab analyses are often confusing. None of the SEE countries reported high rates of fatal overdose. Data collection methodologies and systems can be improved all over the region.

Reported HIV rates among people who inject drugs are low for most of the countries where data is available. However, both Romania and Greece have reported a sharp increase in HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs. In Romania, 28 new HIV cases were registered during 2007-2010. HIV increased sharply starting with 2011, totalling 507 cases until July 2013. In Romania, this is the second HIV epidemic wave, following a massive HIV spread among newborns in late 1980s-early 1990s. This time it is mostly affecting people who inject drugs and it is connected to changes in using patterns (legal highs injection) and harm reduction scale back as a consequence of international funding coming to an end.

The coverage of NSPs in the region is poor, and there are only a few OST sites available, with most countries having less than 10 OST facilities (Global State of Harm Reduction 2012). In many cases, OST is as yet only available to a small number of patients, is not gender- or age-sensitive, and most SEE countries cannot cover the demand through existing services. People who use drugs are therefore placed in long waiting lists before they can enter an OST programme. Although most countries in the region officially support harm reduction measures some have not yet changed their drug laws to allow harm reduction services: in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro for example, police can arrest outreach workers for collecting used syringes on grounds of illicit drug possession (Drug policies and harm reduction in South East Europe, IDPC briefing paper). In addition, most of the harm reduction programmes in the SEE countries were developed with international support and limited to no involvement of national authorities. For this reason, most services are unsustainable in the mid- and long-term.

In all the countries of South East Europe there are initiatives to change the drug laws. Several countries are changing their legislation in order to adjust it to the new socio-political conditions and some are changing their legislation in order to meet the requirements of the European Union in view of becoming members of the EU.

The Diogenis Association took the initiative to set up a project on Drug Law reform in South East Europe, because this is a crucial period for the development of drug policy in the SEE countries within which civil society involvement can play a positive and decisive role. It is our conviction that non-governmental actors in the field of drugs have to have a say in shaping drug policy and influence drug Legislation.

The empirical part of this study compares the relevant national strategies on drugs, national substantive criminal legislations, national drug laws and institutions, as well as drug law enforcement in practice, sentencing levels, and the prison situations in Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Montenegro.

This task includes examination and development of laws, theories, structure, processes and procedures, causes and consequences of societal responses to drug criminality, delinquency, and other security issues. The next paper focuses on supra-regional comparisons and aims to explain why NGOs play an important role in identifying the factors necessary for effective reforms.

DESCARGAR INFORMES:

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA. http://fileserver.idpc.net/library/Drug-policy-and-drug-legislation-in-South-East-Europe-Bosnia-and-Herzegovina.pdf

SERBIA. http://fileserver.idpc.net/library/Drug-policy-and-drug-legislation-in-South-East-Europe-Serbia.pdf

RUMANIA. http://fileserver.idpc.net/library/Drug-policy-and-drug-legislation-in-South-East-Europe-Romania.pdf