When a tank is urgently needed to transport… methadone to hospitals

Yegor suffered. Not only did his legs get paralyzed and the temperature was high for a week, but he also had to drug himself to narcological clinic (drug abuse clinic) for methadone. Every day for several weeks, relatives called an ambulance so that the paramedics took Yegor to narcological clinic on a stretcher. Yegor, like many other participants in the medical program, was afraid to go to the hospital, because he understood that no one would bring him methadone there and, since he lost the use of his legs, he would not be able to come to narcological clinic himself. An ambulance from the hospital would not take him there as well. So he died at home from purulent (bacterial) pneumonia”.

“Every day I carry my friend in my arms to the fifth floor for methadone.” That is due to the fact that drug control also affects the behavior and possibilities of care provision by medical personnel.

Isn’t it a torture? Yes, the horror of the situation is that Kazakhstan has international programs that finance and help to set up a ‘single window’ approach. This means being able to diagnose HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis while receiving methadone. But methadone can only be provided at the consulting room of narcological clinic, because paramilitary security is needed to deliver medicine to people at home care or in the hospital.

Under such circumstances participants of the substitution therapy program, people who use psychoactive substances, coordinators of programs for outreach workers, and leaders of non-governmental organizations met at the training workshop IDUIT Kazakhstan 2019.

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