Drug specialists meet at OSCE conference in Georgia

TBLISI, 25 June 2001 - Georgian, Abkhaz and South Ossetian drug specialists participated on 21 and 22 June at an OSCE-sponsored meeting held in Sukhumi, Georgia, where they familiarized themselves with regional drug-related problems. The meeting, which was organized by the OSCE Mission to Georgia as part of a diplomacy project launched in December 2000, was the first of this kind in Abkhazia after long disrupted contacts.

"This has been a very fruitful and essential meeting for further development and co-operation among medical doctors in the field where there should be no borders", Georgian doctor Gela Lejava said at the meeting. "One of the important results of the meeting was the establishment of professional contacts, and conducive to this was the friendly and warm atmosphere at the event", said Abkhaz doctor Jansug Anua. His South Ossetian colleague Nanuli Alborova stressed the importance of such meetings for a more efficient co-operation to tackle the problem of drug addiction in the country.

The emphasis of the meeting was put on the prevention of drug abuse and the treatment of drug addicts. The participants discussed the necessity of methadone programmes and their implementation, in particular in light of the constant growth of HIV/AIDS infection. The physicians also worked out an agenda for a conference supplementary treatment methods for drug addicts to be held in Kobuleti (Ajara) in July this year. The participants stressed that only joint initiatives could bring the expected results in such a demanding field.

The first meeting of the Georgian, Abkhaz and South Ossetian physicians in the framework of this OSCE project was held in Warsaw, Poland during a one-week OSCE training seminar in December 2000. In April 2001, the participants had met again for a follow-up meeting to this seminar in Tbilisi.

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For additional information, contact the OSCE Mission to Georgia, Krtsanisi Govermental Residence No. 5, Tbilisi, Georgia, Tel./Fax: (+995 32) 98 82 05; Tel./Fax: (+995 32) 93 89 15; Fax: (+995 32) 94 23 30, e-mail: osce@access.sanet.ge