Astrīda Stirna, Head of the Drug Help Service at the Riga Psychiatry and Narcology Centre, explained: "They have an effect with a very high risk of overdose, so they are very dangerous. In addition, opioids have an extremely high potential for addiction, and dependence on them develops very quickly."
The numerous cases of severe overdose prompted a large meeting at the Ministry of Health.
Meanwhile, medical experts have been warning and calling for solutions for at least a year, reporting that drug use at an increasingly early age among adolescents is on the rise.
Health Ministry's statistics and trends show that the number of young people who have tried and regularly use drugs is increasing. 27% of 15-16 year olds in Latvia have tried any drug. At the same time, experts said that the number of young drug users admitted to hospital after using drugs is also on the rise, and some of them overdose repeatedly.
The figures are dramatic - at least four calls a day to the Emergency Medical Service are related to drug overdoses in young people. This is the whole territory of Latvia, not just the center of Riga.
Police said that it is not possible to close all drug supply routes immediately, so the key is to reduce the desire to use and buy deadly substances.
The Health Ministry stressed that children who end up in treatment institutions because of drugs are different, so the solutions must be different.
"We need to work together so that the child does not go missing, but also so that we are clear systemically, nationally, who is responsible for this child at which moment", noted Agnese Vaļuliene, State Secretary of the Ministry of Health.
