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
Security measures of Moscow's Domodedovo airport do not stipulate the 100-percent examination of passengers' luggage
more »
For the first time since August 2002, a clear majority of Norwegians have declared their opposition toward membership of the European Union
more »
A Russian security official says traces of explosives have been found on the wreckage of the second of two crashed Russian airliners
more »
The Vatican denounced feminism Saturday, saying it tries to blur differences between men and women
more »
Pope John Paul, calling himself a sick man among the sick, arrived in the world's premier Roman Catholic "miracle shrine" on Saturday
more »
OUR UKRAINE LEADER ACCUSES PREMIER OF SPYING ON HIM
more »
A discussion is under way inside the European Union as to how many years are required before its new members will match the living standards prevailing in the rest of the now 25-nation EU
more »
British citizen arrested for organizing terrorist acts in Chechnya and Afghanistan
more »
Eleven of the 13 terrorism suspects arrested Tuesday in raids in London and other parts of England were still in custody
more »
After a night of parties and fireworks, thousands of people in Gibraltar linked hands as they celebrated 300 years of British rule
more »