The number of patients of addiction treatment clinics may grow 2-3 times after the law on compulsory drug abuse treatment is adopted in Russia, Russian Ministry of Health’s chief alcohol and drug abuse specialist Yevgeny Bryun said on Saturday.
Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service head Viktor Ivanov earlier said that a law on criminal liability for drug abuse in the places of public resort might be adopted in the spring of 2012. Drug addicts will have to choose either to face criminal penalty or drug abuse treatment.
“I don’t think it will be a very large increase, the number of patients will rise 2-3 times,” Bryun said.
Bryun added that the Russian drug addiction service had enough resources, to cope with an increase in the number of patients of addiction treatment clinics.
“I don’t see any problem here,” Bryun said. “We have enough psychologists, doctors and social workers in each of the federal subjects, but these resources are currently not fully used,” he said.
When asked about the exact amount of court rulings on compulsory drug abuse treatment in Russia, Bryun said he could not name the figure.
“I can’t name the figure in terms of the whole country. In Moscow there are about 600 such court rulings on compulsory treatment,” he said.