Drug policy observer urges safer lives for people who use drugs

Drug policy observer Mart Kalvet said people who use drugs should be supported in living as safely as possible rather than being imprisoned, ERR reported. Speaking on the R2 Hommik radio programme, Kalvet said some people find it easier to cope with life through substance use and should be helped to avoid harming themselves or others.

Estonia’s toxic drug crisis was recently covered by the German public broadcaster’s news programme Europe Magazine, which described Estonia as a testing ground for Europe’s drug market. Criminal police chief Rait Pikaro and Kalvet, a board member of the Estonian Association of Psychotropic Substance Addicts, took part in the programme.

“The global prohibition system has not produced the desired results,” Kalvet said. He argued that more than a century of efforts to restrict drug use and distribution through force and supply controls had failed because demand remained. As long as there is demand, he said, supply will continue through an underground criminal market.

Kalvet said fatal overdoses among experimental users were fortunately rare. However, he compared the use of synthetic opioids to Russian roulette because users often do not know what they are taking. In many cases, he added, suppliers and dealers also do not know which substances or mixtures they are selling.

“The fentanyl era is long over. It is no longer dominant,” Kalvet said, adding that the decline in drug deaths occurred when fentanyl had been removed from the market. The substances that replaced it were even more dangerous, he said. The nonprofit organisation Lunest had warned that removing a substance without offering an alternative would not have the desired effect because the market would fill the gap with something that could be worse.

Kalvet said Estonia needed to educate teachers and future generations about unknown substances, their risks and ways to reduce or avoid those risks. He said more work was also needed in prevention, education and direct harm reduction.

Existing services include needle exchange, addiction treatment and the Sütik support person service, where Kalvet works. He said Estonia also needed a drug testing service for people before they use substances, among other measures.

“I believe informing people is more useful than punishing them,” Kalvet said. He added that most people who are still alive have hope of overcoming their addictions and living a normal life.