Georgian Interior Minister Aleksandre Tchikaidze met with students from the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and acquainted them with the anti-drug campaign planned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).
The Interior Minister spoke about the activities carried out by MIA against drug abuse. In particular, he focused on legislative amendments, which helped reduce the so called “crocodile” drug abuse by 95% in Georgia. Aleksandre Tchikaidze said that the new legislative initiatives will mostly apply to suppliers and sellers of synthetic drugs, i.e. so called “bio-drugs”. “We ask you to present your ideas, proposals and initiatives on how you imagine the struggle against drug abuse, what particular measures should be taken to settle this problem.”
TSU students presented several ideas mostly focusing on preventive measures. In particular, according to students’ proposals, relevant lectures should be delivered at educational institutions – schools, universities, collages; the state policy should be changed – specific attention should be paid to the employment and education of young people; moreover, it is essential to create rehabilitation centers, but before their creation it would be important to involve the church in the rehabilitation process; it is also expedient to involve scientific circles in developing legislative initiatives; active engagement of NGO sector in anti-drug campaign should be promoted, etc.
Vice Rector, Professor Levan Aleksidze described the Interior Minister’s visit to TSU as fruitful. “Students showed their awareness about the problem. A question and answer session lasted for an hour. The conversation was extremely frank. We made sure that we should think over a wide range of issues, because only intimidation is not enough to fight this awful disease. On behalf of the university, I want to express my gratitude to the Minister, who did not evade questions and gave adequate answers to them,” Prof. Aleksidze said.
