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
A Chechen separatist leader, Shamil Basayev, has appeared on British television to threaten more operations similar to last year's school-siege in Beslan
more »
More than 7,000 people attend Wincor World 2005. One of the Wincor Nixdorf's global partners is Penki kontinentai group.
more »
Greenpeace activists showed the world that, at least one major multinational company, DOW Chemical, is far from being responsible and trust worthy
more »
The Hungarian government has announced that it will introduce the first set of biometric passports from 2006, in line with requirements approved by the European Commission on December 13, 2004
more »
After months of legal wrangling, the Swedish Supreme Court today overturned an appeals court ruling and said the convicted and confessed killer of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh will serve his sentence in prison
more »
Protests by Russian pensioners appear to be paying off as they continue to stage demonstrations against social security reforms
more »
Last minute preparations are underway in Washington, D.C. for President Bush's second inauguration
more »
A new Uzbek media watchdog has urged international organisations promoting journalist's rights to pay more attention to the situation in this Central Asian republic where there is no independent press
more »
Nordic countries that suffered hundreds of deaths in the Indian Ocean tsunami are urging Thailand to complete a probe into why no warning was given, saying tourists would not return without an answer
more »
Poland`s Sejm votes to allow Belarusian to be used in local public offices as additional language
more »