Over half of the patients who came to the emergency rooms of hospitals across Romania in 2011 had taken forms of psychoactive substances, traded under the name of "ethno-botanical plants', according to the National Anti Drug agency. This was a problem for all hospitals in dealing with such cases in 2011. At the same time, there was a drop in emergency cases triggered by more powerful substances such as heroin and opiates, either with intoxication, overdose or withdrawal.

Romania's authorities have started to take measures against the trade of new psychoactive substances both through "Weed Shops" and Internet, so the number of vendors reduced, according to a recent report from the National Anti Drug Agency.

The report shows changes of the drug use pattern at national level. Some novel psychoactive substances (NPS) have become more popular among teenagers, and adding the tranquilizers, sedatives, anabolic steroids and other medication without prescription, they led to a prevalence rate of 21.7 percent for experimental use.

The most experimented with drugs among Romanian 16 years old young people are cannabis and the inhalants, with a prevalence of 7.2 percent, according to the report. For most drugs, the prevalence rates were higher in 2011 than in 2007.

Meanwhile, there was also a fourfold increase in the number of drug related psychiatric cases, such as personality disorders, depression, anxiety, emotional disorders, even though the total number of cases admitted to treatment for drug use was down compared to 2010.

The number of deaths caused by drugs was however significantly down, but shifting to new drugs, such as these psychoactive substances or designer drugs, led to indirect deaths, also related to how doctors classify drug-related deaths.

The intravenous administration was used in all the directly drug related deaths, while the opiates continue to dominate the general picture of illegal drugs in Romania, with a predominance of the synthetic heroin substitute, methadone.

On the drug trafficking side, Romania continues to be a link in the trafficking chain, with routes and drug transport methods staying stable between 2001 and 2011.During recent years, a new transport route for heroin from Afghanistan, through the Russian Federation, Ukraine and subsequently, Romania has been established. Romania is still a non-producing country, even though the number of cases of illicit cannabis cultivation has increased in the last two years, but is not yet high enough to make a mark.

More about the drug prevention, use and treatment evolutions in Romania in the report.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: sxc.hu)