One of the few good things Estonians can recall from more than half a century under Soviet totalitarian rule was the absence of a widespread drugs problem in the Baltic state. But after regaining independence in 1991 and the subsequent easing of border restrictions, the numbers of drugs entering the country, and the number of addicts, climbed sharply. In 2004, the Baltic country of 1.4 million people had at least 10,000 intravenous drug addicts and was locked in all-out war against traffickers.
The dangers of drug use became startlingly obvious in late 2000, when a rapid increase in the number of HIV cases was registered among addicts who injected heroin in Narva, in north-eastern Estonia on the border with Russia, home to a large ethnic Russian population.
In late 2004, more than 4,000 people in Estonia had tested positive for HIV but experts say the true figure could be as high as 10,000. According to experts, up to 85 percent of the 10,000 addicts who inject heroin in Estonia are ethnic Russians, who make up less than one-third of the total population.
"But it is wrong to assume that drugs are the problem of the Russian minority alone and are not much used by native Estonian youth," said Anu Harjo, of the National Institute for Health Promotion.
"Wrong conclusions may be easily reached because the media are eager to write mainly about the problems related to drug users who inject heroin. It is very dangerous to let society to think most other drugs are safe," Harjo told AFP. According to a report by the Estonian Drug Monitoring Centre, the consumption of synthetic drugs, mainly amphetamines and ecstasy, has also become a serious public health hazard.
In 2002 the amount of amphetamines confiscated in Estonia increased by 40 percent and the amount of confiscated ecstasy tablets rose more than 200 percent, from 3,759 to 12,019 tabs.
"Various recent surveys indicate that illegal drug use has increased markedly, particularly in urban areas, among teenagers and young adults aged 15-34," Ave Talu, head of the Estonian Drug Monitoring Centre, told AFP. The government in Tallinn has in recent years declared war on the drugs problem, with the weapons in its anti-drug arsenal including the possibility of jailing for life those found guilty of some drug-related crimes.
"The new legislation that increased remarkably the sentences for drug smuggling was adopted by parliament in late 2003. The maximum sentence - life imprisonment - can be given for drug smugglers who have hired children to sell drugs," Margus Kurm, deputy chancellor of the ministry of justice, told AFP.
"The aim of the tough new legislation is to send a strong warning to drug traffickers that smuggling is not just illegal but also a brutal attack against the life and health of people," Kurm said.
He also stressed that drug traffickers "should be treated like assassins". "They all know their actions may cause death. The possibility that they could be jailed for life is probably one of the few things that really frightens the leaders of organised drug traffic," Kurm said.
According to a survey conducted by the Institute of International and Social Studies in 2003, experimenting with illegal drugs is on the rise among secondary school students.
"Whereas in 1995 only seven percent of school students had experimented with illegal drugs, in 1999 the indicator was 15 percent and in 2003, 24 percent," Talu said. As the mother of two school-age boys, Talu said the drug problem also worries her personally. "There is no doubt we need to battle the drug use but the main question seems to be how. I think the key factor is work done in the family but schools also have a role to play in prevention," she said.
"I think there is also a need to find more resources to support free-time activities within the school system and in local communities," Talu stressed. Several centres have been opened in and near Tallinn as well as in north-eastern Estonia to help drug users. The centres assist those wishing to kick their drug habit and also provide new needles to those who inject drugs, to help reduce the risk of infection by shared needles.