Last year 90 people died of drug overdoses in Lithuania. Although Lithuania leads the EU in overdose-related deaths, the country has failed to adopt other countries’ best practices.
Lithuania suffers from the highest numbers of deaths from drug overdoses and new HIV infections through drug injection per year in the EU. Some Western European countries train drug users and their families on how to avoid overdoses and how to rescue people experiencing overdoses. Drug addicts and their relatives often keep an overdose antidote called naloxone. In Lithuania, this drug can only be obtained with a prescription.
Most advanced countries distribute naloxone as an emergency measure to be used immediately after an overdose. Requiring a prescription for the drug becomes a barrier in Lithuania because an overdose cannot be forseen in advance.
Alfa.lt
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