COVID-19 and drugs in the European neighborhood: lessons learned from Ukraine and Georgia
Submitted by Edie
- 3 May 2021
Objective: -
- To present results from studies carried out to collect insights from people who use drugs and service providers on how COVID-19 control measures have affected their lives, as well as the drug market
- To discuss how some of the changes observed are worth becoming a ‘new normal’
Background: In April 2020, in the framework of the EU4Monitoring Drugs (EU4MD) project, two research teams launched a 6-month long cohort study among people who use drugs in Georgia and Ukraine. The aim was to document how the COVID-19 lockdown measures may impact their social-economic status, drug use behaviour as well as access to drug-related health services. The research team also gathered information from selected key stakeholders. In Georgia, daily monitoring of drug sales on Matanga, the largest website on the darknet, was also performed.
