Hungary records continuous rise in drug use

Hungary is worried about rising drug use. The director of the National Institute for Drug Prevention, Akos Topolanszky, says while there is a good national drug prevention strategy in Hungary it's not being fully implemented.

Heroin

"We have a small advantage compared to other countries because the history of drug use in Hungary is not that old. But drug abuse in Hungary is increasing. Of the 16 year old high school students in Budapest, about 31 percent of them use drugs. Among the 18 years olds, some 50 percent - every second student - has tried an illegal drug. However, most of them tried marihuana or hashish. This is somewhat good news in the bad news, as these are the less harmful drugs."

Do drug dealers approach students on school premises?

"I don't think that the distribution of drugs is that organised. Evidence leads us to believe that most students get the drugs themselves."

What is your primary task?

"We need to stabilise the institute's financial situation. We also have to continue with all the important programmes that were started in the last few years. We would also like to start new projects, primarily involving international cooperation with other countries, mainly the UK, the Netherlands, Portugal, and also with the Visegrad countries [Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia] because it is evident that drug use and drug trafficking doesn't know any borders."