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
Polling stations have opened in the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan for the election of a new parliament
more »
Thousands of Ukrainians have rallied in Kiev in support of opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko
more »
A Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate is in a Vienna
more »
The government promotes this Baltic nation as E-stonia, and it has a point
more »
Lukashenka will face problems with getting support of majority in changing Constitution
more »
Just last month Islamist guerrillas kidnapped and murdered the Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni in Iraq, while security guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi met a similar fate in April
more »
The number of people looking for work in Germany rose in August
more »
Macedonia's parliament has ordered a referendum to be held in November on a law seen to favour ethnic Albanians
more »
Russia began counting the cost today at the end of siege of a school captured by Chechen gunmen
more »
The blast happened at the end of the evening rush hour
more »