The primary aspect of the entire anti-narcotics effort is a series of medical treatment measures. They are carried out by different medical institutions as actions against narcotics is inalienable from the activities of public health services of all levels, including the medical service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1975 the former Soviet medical authorities detached the addictions treatment service from psychiatry. Thus the treatment of drug and other addicts became a separate branch of medicine known as narcology.

The efforts of the medical institutions make up a significant part of the anti-narcotics strategy. Their goal is to bring about a decrease in the demand for drugs. This is achieved by the treatment and rehabilitation of abusers and, in the final run, is a positive factor of a general improvement in the drug abuse situation.

The measures, which the health centers, are obliged to take, can roughly be divided into two groups. Group One includes the properly medical efforts in the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts. Group Two embraces other organizational steps to keep narcotics at bay.

The international community also pays considerable attention to the treatment of drug addicts. Article 38 of the Uniform Convention on Drugs states that the signatory countries will take every possible step to prevent the misuse of narcotic substances, ensure an early identification of abusers, treat them, restore them to full working capability, re-socialize, and monitor them after the completion of treatment (Paragraph 1). The countries will train appropriate personnel (Paragraph 2), and will inform the population about the hazards of drug abuse (Paragraph 3). The medical treatment of drug addicts is also presupposed by Resolution II of the UN conference on implementing the Uniform Convention on Drugs. Reminding of the provisions of Article 38, the conference stressed that hospital treatment in a drug-free atmosphere is the most efficacious medical approach to the issue. It recommended that economically potent countries where drug abuse is a serious problem provide the opportunities for such treatment.

The Treatment and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts:

The issues of medical treatment/social rehabilitation of addicts and other relevant measures are to a greater or lesser degree incorporated in the public health programs of all nations and have found reflection in certain regional programs. As a rule, these documents emphasize perfection of the strategies and organization of drug abuse services on the assumption that drug abuse is a social disease. The other important aspects are financing and material/technical support, personnel, informing definite sectors of society on the hazardous impact of addiction, research in the field of more effective medicine.

Experts, however, warn against an overly simplified belief that containing drug addiction boils down to the availability of medicines and available hospital beds. The prophylactics of social illnesses like alcoholism, misuse of narcotics and toxic chemicals cannot be built upon the same methods as the treatment of serious infectious diseases. Alongside pharmaceutics, it requires psychological aid and education which more and more often involves the addicts' families and friends. It is naive to believe that medicines and injections alone can bring about the desired results and that the selection of individually suitable pharmaceutical preparations gives a clue to the problem of treatment. Good results are yielded by a combination of psychology and pharmacy. Therefore, the treatment for drug addiction consumes much painstaking effort of a doctor, psychologist, educator and other specialists working with a person who is likely to develop the illness or is ill already.

On the face of it, the issues of treatment and prophylactics necessitate comprehensive programming and proficient organization. Their solution lies in the medico-biological, medico-psychological and medico-social spheres.

From the standpoint of government policy, public health institutions have the exclusive authority to treat drug addicts by officially approved methods, including compulsory treatment of the addicts who pose danger to society.

According to the results expected in this field, health centers must organize and effectuate a series of measures destined to establish firm grounds for progress in the drug abuse situation.

In the first place, this means the early identification, diagnosis and registration of the persons who use drugs for non-medical purposes and hence stand in need of prophylactic and treatment. However, shortcomings in the existing methods of express-diagnostics and in the expert check-ups of drug addicts make establishing the degree and the type of drug dependence somewhat problematic.

Identification, Diagnosis, and Registration of Drug Users:

The identified addicts may belong to different age and social groups; their condition may have a different degree of narcotic neglect. This fact may influence the choice, distribution and intensity of medical measures, as well as their combination with other types of aid.

Of particular importance is the early identification of addicts among the young and the adolescents. A timely medical interference, caring participation and influence of parents, relatives, teachers, police officers, and the atmosphere of friendliness can stop the youngsters' slump into illness.

When the consumers of different drugs have been identified, it is exigent to inform the police to enable it to find the sources of drugs and trafficking channels and execute other preventive measures.

Information is especially important if the drugs have been manufactured illegally or their origins are unclear.

The following list of measures can help identify the individuals who misuse narcotic substances:

medical check-ups of industrial labor staffs, school and college students;

medical check-ups of inmates in jails and penitentiaries;

medical examination of the perpetrators of drug abuse for further registration and treatment, including compulsory treatment;

specialized testing of certain professionals (the military, pilots, drivers of all means of transport, police officers) for the bodily presence of narcotic substances;

revealing the most dangerous forms of drug abuse that complicated detoxification, revealing the cases of multiple drug misuse (the combined use of more than one drug) and the cases of an intertwined abuse of drugs and alcohol;

identification of addicts who carry the HIV and other infectious diseases, elimination of the consequences of infectious transmission;

timely registration, treatment and rehabilitation of those who need it.

Another way to improve the health servicing of drug abusers is to organize:

fundamental research; development of efficacious pharmaceutical preparations and novel methods of treatment for different types of narcotic dependence, their speedy translation into public health practices; large-scale contribution to research from Russian and foreign scientists (the Academy of Sciences, medical, pedagogical, psychological and other research institutions, application of practices adopted abroad);