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
For the last 15 years European citizens living in another European country have been able to vote in that country's local and European elections.
more »
Zimbabwe is suffering from cholera.
more »
Metropolitan Kirill will head the Russian Orthodox Church temporarily following the death of Patriarch Alexiy II on Friday.
more »
U.S President George W. Bush celebrates his final Christmas in office - the lighting of the National Christmas tree.
more »
Under new draft laws, people travelling by bus and ship would enjoy the same rights as those taking a plane or train, including the right to meals, hotel accommodation and alternative services if the trip is cancelled or interrupted.
more »
The importance of individual happiness, which can be achieved with the help of universal human values - whether religious or non-religious - was one major theme in an address by the 14th Dalai Lama to the European Parliament on Wednesday.
more »
Although the European Parliament is now much more powerful than when it was first directly elected in 1979, voter turnout for elections has declined steadily, reaching a new low in 2004.
more »
The free tours are run by Sandemans New Europe - set up in 2004 by Chris Sandeman, who chose tourism over his family's traditional sherry business.
more »
Eighteen months after it began work, Parliament's Temporary Committee on Climate Change called for an 80% cut in greenhouse gases by 2050, binding interim targets to improve energy efficiency 20% by 2020 and incentives to encourage everyone to do their bit.
more »
Israeli experts are using good old mathematical models to give a face in a photo the ideal characteristics in just a few mouse clicks.
more »