In Moldova, says Gheorghe Turcanu, Deputy Minister for Labour, Social Protection and Family, alcoholism and drug addiction are widespread. Alcohol, for example, amounts to 17 liters per inhabitant per year, including children. «The country produces opium poppy’s – said the deputy minister, and between the 90s and 2000 this drug was used mostly intravenously. Today, as in many Western countries, people prefer to oinhale or smoke it».
According to official data, relating to people who have come to the hospitals, the number of addicts would amount to 10 thousand out of 4 million inhabitants. « but other more direct data show about 30 000 drug addicts; 0.6 percent of them are younger than 18 years because the problem mainly concerns the generation between 27 and 30 years of age ». Our drug laws reflect that of many other European countries , where the smuggling of drugs is severely punished where as the consumption laws are a little more relaxed.
« The objectives of the governmental proposal – says Mihail Oprea, head of the Commission on addiction – is to create specific services for drug addiction, providing rehabilitation ». This is a problem, in a country that has little to no experience – «I am very impressed by what I saw here – said the deputy minister – and like me all the experts who accompanied me, San Patrignano is a unique new way for us to treat addiction. What especially impressed me was the relationship between people later in the recovery path and the newcomers, the relationship that is established. I think – said the Moldovan political – that what we face is the best method of social inclusion that I just happened to see. Although I imagine the cost issues very relevant ».
The Moldavian delegation, accompanied by Alexei Bogatirov, a guy who has done the recovery program at San Patrignano, stops the 1st and 2nd of April, to visit the various workshops and study the activities of the Community.