The City of Vilnius last week sponsored a two-day international conference entitled "AIDS and Drug Use: Let's Unify our Response."
Published:
5 October 2000 y., Thursday
The event brought together experts from Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, the United States as well as hundreds of representatives from many levels of
Lithuanian society and government: police and health officials, educators,
student leaders and politicians.
The main auditorium at the Vilnius Congress Hall was standing room only
for the opening addresses on Sept. 19 - a testament to the importance of
these issues in Lithuania today. In most cases, the speeches themselves
addressed concrete means of attacking the drug problem.
Kornelijus Platelis, Lithuania's minister of education, spoke about the
effect of drug use on schools in the country. "Drugs are affecting mainly
our young people. Drugs are openly sold in schools and underage crime
is increasing," he said.
Platelis advocated increased policing of drug traffickers and dealers in
order to reduce supply as well as working more closely with countries
more experienced in fighting drugs such as the United States, Russia and
Sweden.
While Lithuania was only a hub for the transportation of narcotics just a few short years ago, it is now a nation of drug producers and users, according to Ceslovas Blazys, minister of the interior. Some 21 percent of Lithuania's school-age boys and 9.6 percent of school-age girls experimented with drugs at least once, according to a
survey conducted by the Vilnius Pedagogical Institute in 1999.
Šaltinis:
baltictimes.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
EU animal welfare rules must be more rigorously enforced, with more inspections and effective penalties, said the Agriculture Committee on Wednesday.
more »
Fifty-three year old Rasima collects dirt everyday from a paddy field in Indonesia’s east Java province, turning it into a snack made entirely from soil, called "ampo."
more »
At the moment an Argentinian working for a French company in Spain can't travel to France for a meeting on his long-term visa.
more »
An EU-wide strategy is needed to combat violence against women, which must be recognised as a crime, said participants in a European Parliament public hearing with national parliaments and civil society representatives, held on Tuesday to mark International Women's Day.
more »
You know its Tet in Vietnam when Peach and Kumquat orange trees decorate every home, shop and public establishment.
more »
A surveyor has set up his tripod and instruments under a hot tropical sun to measure plots of land in a village where the Dac Kray minority community were settled four years ago.
more »
Japanese men are answering the call of Valentine s Day a month late.
more »
In three urgent resolutions adopted on Thursday, Parliament urges Hamas to release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, deplores the escalating criminal violence in Mexico and calls on South Korea to scrap the death penalty.
more »
The plight of Europe's 10 million Roma population will fall under the spotlight Tuesday afternoon when MEPs discuss an upcoming Roman summit.
more »
EU Employment and Social Affairs Ministers have today adopted a Directive to prevent injuries and infections to healthcare workers from sharp objects such as needle sticks – one of the most serious health and safety threats in European workplaces and estimated to cause 1 million injuries each year.
more »