EPIDEMIC OF HEROIN USE IN SLOVAKIA

Prior to the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, there was a ver y low level of illicit drug use in Slovakia. Health registers and a po pulation survey revealed that those most affected by illicit drug use, namely heroin, are young people in the capital city, Bratislava. Youn gsters between 15 and 24 years of age formed 79% of new patients suffe ring from heroin-related problems. In a 1994 sample studied in Slovaki a, 76% were males and 70% were unemployed. The records indicate a shar p increase in new patients with heroin-related problems at the end of 1993 and in 1994. As the detected median of the time period between th e first experience with heroin and the first visit to a health facilit y varies between 2 and 3 years, the beginning of the epidemic can be e stablished around the year 1990. A trend from smoking to intravenous d rug use was observed: from 34% intravenous drug use in 1993 to 72% in 1995. The availability of drugs rather than unemployment seemed to pla y an important role in the beginning of the epidemic in Slovakia.