Speeches: Mr Joze Hren: "Introduction"; Mr Miha Wohniz, Ministry of

Justice, Slovenia: "Welcome"; Mr Milan Krek, Drug Demand Reduction

Co-ordinator, Slovenia : "The sub-regional project on harm reduction in

Slovenia"; Mr Jacek Moskalewicz, Team Leader of Phare TA to DDR: "Harm

reduction in prison - a relevant topic for Phare partner countries?"

The Thematic Seminar was opened by Joze Hren who introduced the

immediate objectives of the Phare Project on Technical Assistance to Drug

Demand Reduction and the themes of it's four sub-regional projects to an

audience of prison- and demand reduction-experts from the thirteen Phare

partner countries (See Appendix I). He briefly outlined the background and

purpose of the sub-regional project on "Harm Reduction", in which the Czech

Republic, the former yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia

participate, and recalled the two objectives these countries had defined

for the Thematic Seminar in their sub-regional project plan. These were:

to disseminate information about HR services in prisons among experts from

Phare partner countries and to initiate regional discussion of

Recommendations on >Harm Reduction in prison<, that can encourage the

provision of HR services in prisons in Phare partner countries.

He underlined that the Seminar was not only an important regional

event, but - being combined with a interdisciplinary training event for

experts from his country - was intended to reach the widest possible

audience of staff working in prison/health services in Slovenia.

Following this introduction, participants were welcomed by Miha

Wohniz, Representative of the Ministry of Justice of Slovenia. He expressed

his satisfaction about the fact that the Thematic Seminar was the first

international seminar dealing with this important issue that takes place in

the Phare region - and at the same time the first major event organized in

his country within the TA to DDR project. He said that drugs were

everywhere - including prisons - and that health risks related to drug

taking must even be considered to be higher among prisoners, a high

percentage of which were drug-offenders. The current total number of

inmates in Slovenia (including all persons sentenced, detained and arrested

in educational measures for adolescents) was 800, among them 120 persons

identified as drug addicts.

He wished participants success in their work during the Seminar, and

called for concrete results that can be used in strategic planning and

practical implementation of harm reduction measures in prison - in Slovenia

and in the whole region. He also stressed that the new penal law in his

country would not be an obstacle for providing adequate health promotion

services to imprisoned drug users.

Jacek Moskalewicz, Team Leader of Phare TA to DDR, then took the

floor to welcome participants from Slovenia and from the other Phare

countries. He was very pleased that most of the experts were for the first

time involved in an activity of the project, which corresponded to it's

policy of expanding expert-networks and increasing sustainability of the

project's work. He discussed whether the topic of the Thematic Seminar was

relevant for Phare partner countries and said that the extent of drug use

in prison was in most countries of the region still unknown, and that

discussion on harm reduction measures in prison was limited to expert

cycles. But as the legal situation in the countries of the region provided

for increased imprisonment of drug users, in the future, a situation like

in the EU member States could be anticipated. There, research had shown

that prisons were high-risk areas for drug addicts to contract HIV and

Hepatitis, because drugs were available and injection equipment often

shared. From the point of view of the project, the Seminar should not only

be used as an opportunity to discuss harm reduction measures on an

expert-level, but also to bring together evidence and arguments to initiate

a public discussion in order to achieve broad public support.

On behalf of the Bureau for Drugs and of the Phare NDC, the National

Drug Demand Reduction Co-ordinator Milan Krek welcomed participants and

wished them interesting and productive discussions.