ROMANIAN MONITORING CENTRE FOR DRUGS AND DRUG ADDICTION (RMCDDA)

1. CONCEPT/ PURPOSE / VISION

The Romanian Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (RMCDDA) functions as a Romanian technical liaison structure with the European Union, in charge with monitoring the Romanian drugs situation and with the exchange of information between source-institutions and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
The RMCDDA centralizes all data provided by the institutions that possess drug related data. The data is properly analyzed and broken down into two main components of the drug policy:
. Drug Demand Reduction:
- "Infectious diseases associated to drug use" key indicator
- "Drug Related Death" key indicator
- "Drug Related Treatment Demand" key indicator
- "Prevalence of drug use" key indicator
- "General Population Surveys" key indicator
. Drug Supply Reduction:
- Availability and market supply
- Price of drugs on illicit market
- Purity of drugs trafficked on the illicit market
- Social problems associated to drug use and drug trafficking
- Offences associated to the drug use.
The results of the analysis are submitted to policymakers at the level of the ministries involved.

2. GENERAL OBJECTIVES

To facilitate a global, reliable and up-to-date vision on issues related to the use of drugs (including tobacco, alcohol and other psychoactive substances that cause addiction) in Romania that would allow for the improvement of the decision-making process and would bring an important contribution to the preparation and evaluation of response policies in the case of drug use.

3. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

- Identifying and defining the data and the data sources;
- Setting up an informational network regarding the drug field;
- Acknowledging drug use prevalence tendencies and characteristics;
- Identifying and measuring the trends of drug-related issues - the sanitary, judiciary, social aspects;
- Measuring the tendency of psychoactive substances supply;
- Acknowledging the appropriate responses to the illicit drug use and trafficking (legislation, programs, projects);
- Analyzing data offered by indicators, inquiries etc and issuing a national annual report;
- Sending information to decision-making factors at both national and European level and to other interested institutions;
- Promoting specific research for each indicator and training staff in order to improve the data and data collection methodology;
- Providing data for future studies;
- Studying the population's attitude and opinion on drug use and drug users and the programs related to the drugs phenomenon;
- Establishing a documentation and information center on drug related issues(written bibliographical material - hard copies and electronic format).

4. INDICATORS

1. POPULATION SURVEYS
It is a percentage-based estimation of drug use reported to the total population (current or previous). It is considered a key indicator for the assessment of the situation at a certain time and for the development and evolution of policies in this field. It is important to know which groups include drug users, as well as their drug use patterns/tendencies.
Sources:
National Statistics Institute
Institute for Health Services Management, NGOs

2. PREVALENCE AND PATTERNS OF PROBLEMATIC DRUGS USE
It refers to the supervision of drug users` groups. "Problematic" drugs can refer to drugs such as opium, cannabis and/or amphetamine. This definition excludes Ecstasy and cannabis use, as well as recreational use of opium, cocaine and amphetamines.
Sources:
Institute for Medical Statistics
NGOs

3. DRUG RELATED INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Prevalence and incidence of HIV/HVB/HVC
Sources:
Ministry of Health and Family
Institute for Medical Statistics
NGOs

4. DRUG RELATED DEATHS
Refers to data provided by mortality registers for the general population, specialized statistics registrars, and various studies on drug users. The number of death cases caused directly by drug abuse (overdoses) is often used for a simple general estimation of the situation in a certain country. At the same time, it is important to know the number of death cases in the young population, which is the group where drug abuse occurs most often.
Sources: "Mina Minovici" Forensic Institute
Institute for Medical Statistics

5. DRUG TREATMENT DEMAND
It refers to the statistic data provided by the treatment centers or other units which offer specialized medical assistance.
Sources:
Any treatment institutions that reports and sends data to the Ministry of Health and Family
Institute for Medical statistics

5. MAIN DIRECTIONS

Aiming to develop a network for data collection according to the mentioned key indicators, the RMCDDA strategy will follow two main directions:
. Demand Reduction (Indicators 3, 4, and 5)
. Supply Reduction; in this manner, a range of "core" indicators (drug price on the market, number of arrests, drug seizures) will be developed in close co-operation with General Directorate for Countering Organized Crime and Anti-drug and the specialized departments of the Ministry of Justice.