On the 26th of June (International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking), The Georgian Harm Reduction Network (GHRN) OSGF financial support held a press-conference “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back”.
Recently the Georgian Parliament held first hearing of the Law on Fight against Drug Crime. At the same time, according to the new legislation the administrative penalty for drug use increases from 500 GEL to 1000 GEL ($600) and the alternative treatment is abolished.
The press-conference participants highlighted that above mentioned amendments will not help to reduce the number of drug users, but on the contrary, such legislation will increase drug user numbers.
The new bill puts under the question mark implementation of public health programs, aiming prevention of spread of HIV/AIDS, C Hepatitis and other infectious diseases, as well as treatment programs for drug dependents. Drug users (who are main carriers of HIV/AIDS, C Hepatitis and other infectious diseases) will be unable to participate in the preventive programs and there will be only few options left for them…
The second part of the press-conference was dedicated to nomination of winner journalists – authors of best articles dedicated to harm reduction topic. 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes were won by the Russian, Georgian and English language articles.