Medical Emergency Brigade Will Not Notify Police in Case of Overdose

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

Different activities were organized throughout the country to celebrate the International Overdose Awareness Day. Trainings and round tables aiming at public awareness raising were organized in different cities of Georgia. Society received information about overdose problem. 

Demonstration “Life Trees” were organized in seven cities of Georgia, among them was Kutaisi. Representatives of the CSOs New Way and Rubicon planted cypresses in the yard of Bagrati Church and reminded society that drug-addiction is disease and every drug-addict, like a sick person, have rights and right to life among all.

“Based on the August 11 decree of the Minister of Healthcare, medical emergency brigades are no longer obliged to notify the police in cases of overdose. This fact is clearly a step forward made by the government. In case of overdose, a person will no longer be afraid to call ambulance and many fatal cases will be avoided. It is very important. We will save lives of many people,” Zaza Karchkhadze, coordinator at the Kutaisi office of the Psycho-Social Information and Consultation Center, member of the Georgian Harm Reduction Network, told humanrights.ge. He also stressed out that medicine Naloxon, which is used during overdose, is among those medicines which can be sold without doctor’s prescription. Coordinator of the New Way said it is absolute paradox.