How three drug users took on the might of the Russian state

Opioid substitution therapy (OST) – such as methadone or buprenorphine which are commonly used to treat heroin addiction in the UK – is banned in Russia.  In 2015 three Russians took the state to the European Court of Human Rights claiming the national policy was abusing their human rights.

IDHDP was one of a small group of organisations which put forward expert testimony on their behalf.  This could be a landmark case - not just for these three individuals but for others in Russia and other parts of the world where this highly effective evidence based treatment is either banned or highly inaccessible.