1 in 10 residents of three Tallinn neighborhoods injecting addicts
There are three neighborhoods in the Estonian capital of Tallinn whose injecting drug addicts makes up roughly one tenth of the population, it appears from the results of a study commissioned by the National Institute for Health Development (NIHD) published on Monday.
The percentage of injecting addicts was found to be the highest in the Sitsi neighborhood of the capital's Põhja-Tallinn district, where they made up 13.6 percent of the total population. The same district's Karjamaa neighborhood followed with 11.2 percent, and the Juhkentali neighborhood of Central Tallinn with 9.7 percent of the population injecting.
Based on the NIHD study, the total number of injecting drug users in Tallinn is estimated to be between 5,400-5,600.
With a population of 59,413, the Põhja-Tallinn district had the biggest ratio of injecting addicts living or staying there, accounting for 33 percent of the entire city's injecting population, or 1,807 injecting drug users, the study showed. The ratio was the same for the district of Lasnamäe, however the latter's total population was nearly twice that of Põhja-Tallinn with a total of 118,776 residents.
The proportion of injecting addicts was found to be smallest in Tallinn's western Haabersti district, coming in at just 3.3 percent in a district with a population size of 41,549.
The study recommended establishing another six syringe exchange center points in addition to three that already exist in the capital city.
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS