Prevention of drug use in Romania - priority of health policies

A. Baciu, M. Alexandru, A. Pungă

Abstract: Objectives. In recent decades, legal and illegal drug use has increased and expanded throughout the world, becoming one of the great health problems of the populations concerning the time in which we live and a preoccupation of medical anthropology. The objectives of this study are to observe the participants' level of information on the effects of drug use; to establish the relationship prevention of drug use-public health policy and to propose some effective prevention methods. Methods. The qualitative study was conducted over a period of three months with the participation of a group of 100 people who consumed heroin and underwent methadone substitution treatment, beneficiaries of CAIA-ANIT Bucharest center. The technique used was the interview, semi-structured, of depth, applied face to face. The semi-structured interview guide comprised 40 open questions, of which five answers were selected for this paper. Results. Almost all participants in the study said they had no information about drugs when they started to consume and that, if they knew the effects, they would not have consumed in the long run. They argued that drug prevention is absolutely necessary and must be done by the state, from a very young age, but especially during adolescence. Most of them appreciated that there is not enough done in this direction in our country. Conclusion. The costs of health care for drug users are high, rather difficult to bear by the state budget, which is why prevention of drug use and associated illness (HIV/AIDS, B or C virus hepatitis, tuberculosis) should be the priority
Keywords: effective prevention, public health, drugs, medical anthropology.