The Problems Related To Drug Addiction In Greece

Six years of recession and four years of hard economic cuts have made a dent in the mental health of many Greeks. For some, drugs have been one of the solutions to their problems. OKANA, one of the largest public agencies that provide treatment and reintegration programs in Greece, stated that the number of heroin addicts in Greece increased from 20,000 in 2011 to 24,000 in 2015. This was mainly due to its low price, a great attraction for those who could not afford, for instance, cocaine or others drugs which are more expensive. "The crisis has created disorders like depression. The increase in drug consumption is the result of a decline in the economic conditions of citizens”, explains Evagelos Kafetzopoulos, psychiatrist and deputy director of the organization OKANA.

The Hellenic economy has contracted more than 25% since 2008. The depression combined eight years ago with the austerity measures prescribed by the country's creditors, raising unemployment to rates above 27%. Today, after the country has returned to growth, 25. 8% of the population remains unemployed. The purchasing power of the Hellenes has come down to levels of the 1980s, according to the private sector union. 52% of families declared that their main income is pensions. The situation has left many addicts homeless. The number of hard drug users sleeping on the streets of the capital has doubled since the beginning of the country's economic difficulties, according to a study by KETHEA ( ), another organization dedicated to the treatment of drug addicts. 44. 4% of those interviewed admitted living as "homeless". Moreover, those who did enjoy a home did not have a much better situation: four out of ten said they had no electricity or running water in their homes. The same number said they did not have any medical insurance. Drug use is not only greater, but also more precarious. According to OKANA, HIV infections among intravenous drug addicts have increased alarmingly in recent years.

In 2012, Greece and Romania accounted for 37% of the total number of new HIV diagnoses among intravenous drug users in the EU. Moreover, of the 607 HIV infections that occurred in Greece in 2009, only 14 were among heroin addicts. In 2012 there were 1180 infections, of which 522 were injected with this drug, the main reason being that heroin administered intravenously is cheaper. In addition, consumers lend used syringes to spend less, which is another reason for the increasing number of infections. In 2013, the situation in Greece improved, there were 920 infections, of which 262 were heroin users. At that point, the European country was able to open more treatment places for addicts, despite the fact that the budget had been reduced by 40% since the beginning of the crisis. Greece had doubled the treatment offices in that same year. The crisis has also proliferated cheaper drugs. In 2013, a drug known as "sisa" spread through the streets of the country. It is also known as the "cocaine of the poor" or the "drug of austerity", and can be deadly in a few months. It comes very cheap: the dose is worth only two euros. It is sold as a powder and it is usually consumed by smoking it. Its basic ingredient is methamphetamine and its effects include insomnia, hallucinations and aggressiveness. Nowadays it has been reduced and is no longer popular. Nevertheless, this it is not the only drug that worries the authorities. Up to 70 new synthetic substances were detected by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs in 2012, when usually only five new ones appear every year.

Furthermore, there has also been a decline in the prices of the most common drugs. For example, heroin costs today half the price of what it used to cost in 2012, and this could be due to excess supply. In Western and Central Europe, heroin is partially replaced as a substance of synthetic opioid use, such as fentanyl, buprenorphine and methadone. In some countries, the majority of imports into opioid treatment programs have a dependence on these substances. Especially for Greece, the increase in cannabis seizures by two thirds in 2011-2012 suggests that the country may evolve into a transit center of the substance. The ports of northwest Greece as well as the Adriatic are used to transport large loads of cannabis plants from Albania to Western Europe.

Moreover, the Balkan road that crosses Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and other countries destined for Western Europe remains the main route for the transfer of Afghan heroin. Today, the available data provided by the EMCDDA indicates that the problematic opioid use has decreased since the year 2010 and has mantained stabled until now. The latest data show that the estimated number of high-risk heroin users in Greece in the year 2016 was approximately 17. 000, or 2. 46 per 1000 of the adult population. The number of Greeks that inject drugs has also declined from about 40% in 2006 to less than 30% in 2016. Aditionally, opioids users in Greece are mostly in their 30s and have started using in their 20s (…. )

Furthermore, the number of Greeks who die from an overdose has decreased from 253 deaths in 2006 to 73 deaths in 2016 (EMCDA). Drug treatment demand in the country is also declining, currently there are 2615 people. Out of these, 90% are males and the majority enter treatment due to primary heroin use. 61% of treatment entrants in 2016 was due to heroin use. However, the number of treatment entries for heroin use has declined in recent years, while the treatment entries for others drugs, for example, cannabis has increased. Reasons for this increase could be that the number of people developing problems because of cannabis use has increased as well as the increment in potency within the cannabis market. It is worth mentioning that in the year 2016, 12. 939 Greeks (11% of total population) received treatment, and 9 out of 10 of these were treated in outpatient settings such as OST programmes.