Other - Looking for an Alternative - Drug Policy In Georgia

[xSevilx]

From the HCLU website (article link)


Looking for an Alternative

Illicit drug use is considered to be one of the major socials problems in the Republic of Georgia. After visiting the country and attending the national harm reduction conference in October, my impression was that the real problem is the crazy drug policy (exported from the US of course) and not drug use itself. The word “crazy” may seem an overstatement for some people, but I think they don’t know the everyday reality of Georgian drug policy at all. In this country with a population no more than 5 million, the police arrests almost 60.000 people every year for drug offenses – but without any clear evidence that they even possessed drugs! If somebody looks suspicious or even distasteful for a policeman on the street he can easily find himself in a jail for 8-9 hours, waiting for a drug test that can confirm his innocence. Yes, I say innocence, because 70% of those people arrested for drug use actually tested negative last year. Why is it good for the police? Because they can escort people for 8-9 hours instead of chasing real criminals on the streets, and of course this procedure is a source of governmental funding and corruption for law enforcement agencies. Thousands of marginalized drug users are imprisoned because they were not able to pay the fines, sometimes even their apartment is confiscated. At the same time, treatment programs are underfunded, the clients are often harassed by police and there is no drug coordination system at all.



Looking for an Alternative from Hungarian Civil Liberties Union on Vimeo.HCLU’s video advocacy team produced a movie on this issue in cooperation with Alternative Georgia, one of the few NGOs fighting against the insanity in the country. The film shows the tragedy of a family caused by repressive drug legislation and neglectful governmental policy. An old man explains what did it mean to him when his son was imprisoned for drug use. We presented the movie at the national harm reduction conference in the capital, Tbilisi – and now to the international community as well.

To find out more about Georgian drug policy download the briefing paper of the Beckley Foundation, written by Dato Otiashvili (Alternative Georgia) and myself:
Drug Control in Georgia: Testing and the Reduction of Drug Use?

Recently the government anounced that it wants to change the drug legislation – but unfortunately it seems that not for good. We don’t have the text of the bill (the government has not release it yet), but we have some information, for example that according to the proposed legislation the fines will be even higher than now, and those who refuse to undergo drug testing will be automatically considered guilty. They also plan to introduce forced drug testing for every public servants, including teachers, which may result in the exclusion of drug users from several professions (even if they are occasional marijuana smokers).

Please help us to circulate this video and report and show the world what’s happening in Georgia! Maybe it’s not late to put international pressure on the Georgian government.


posted by Peter Sarosi

[Lunar Loops]

Welcome xSevilx, your contributions are most welcome. I have added your video to our video archive and it can be found here:

Looking for an Alternative

Perhaps you could answer a couple of questions for us as I think few of our members would be familiar with the situation in former soviet block countries.

How exactly did you become involved in highlighting the Georgian situation as opposed to fighting on the home front? Was it solely as the result of the conference in Georgia?

What is the situation like in other former soviet states?

What is the situation like in Hungary?

'True' change is only ever likely to come about if it is achieved on a global scale and is never likely to be achieved unilaterally. As such, more cross-country co-operation is to be encouraged.

[xSevilx]

Hi Lunar Loops, thanks for adding the video to the archive!


Well, personally I didn't take part in shooting this film, it's my colleagues work. As far as I know the story is the following: HCLU took part at the Second Eastern Europe and Central Asia AIDS Conference (EECAAC) in Moscow, 3-5 May, 2008. The idea of making films about the methadone substitution treatmens' legal status in the former soviet states was born there. The antecendent of this film was another documentary about why Russia says no to methadone while having 1,5 million people living with HIV and the majority of them got infected through the sharing of injecting equipment. You can check this one here.

The situation in Hungary is a bit better, because we have 9 hospitals with substitution therapies for opiate users (you can read more about this topic here). The main problem here is that only the 8-10% of the problematic opiate users can join these treatments, mainly because of the stigmatization and the fear of the police...

[Lunar Loops]

Many thanks for the reply and you are most welcome.