ESTONIAN EXPERIENCE ESTONIAN EXPERIENCE The 2nd Prevnet Conference of Telematics in Addiction Prevention, Dublin, Ireland, ctober 2003 MARIANNE PAIMRE Estonian Foundation for Prevention of Drug Addiction/ University of Tartu
Estonia Area:45,227 sq km. Population: 1,361,242 Capital:Tallinn, population 398,434 Ethnic divisions: Estonian 67.9%, Russian 25.6%, Ukrainian 2.1%, Belarussian 1.3%,Finnish 0.9%, other 2.2%
Use of the Internet in the Baltic States in 2000s (15-74, Emor …)
Eesti jt riigid 2002 (EMOR)
Youngsters and the Internet Interneti hea kättesaadavusega koolides According to surveys (EMOR): Children are more willing to use computers and internet than adults. In 2001 ¾ of children aged 6-14 had used a computer in the previous 6 months. This indicator was almost twice the figure for adults (the share of PC users 43%) (EMOR). At present: 27 pupils at schools per a computer (
The “Tiger Leap” project
Youngsters and drugs ESPAD SURVEY: years old secondary school students who had tried any drug doubled in : 12% 1999: 23%
“Drug Prevention in Tallinn Schools” 2001/2002. Illegal drugs are not so popular than alcohol and tobacco. Protsentage of those who had tried any drug was quite high: 39% of older boys (the 9th form) and 33% girls.
Drug prevention website(s) HISTORY : the Estonian Foundation for Prevention of Drug Addiction launched the specific drug information & prevention website: narko.sm.ee Not available any more.
Websites offering drug (prevention) information Drug information is offered on different websites. No special/ professional sites at present
A) Medical Those medical sites concentrate mainly the treatment aspect when speaking about drugs.
B) On education: Explain mainly how to help children, discuss the relations between the addict and his/her family etc.
C) For children & young people etc Children and juvenile oriented pages write about how to recognize an addict, discuss AIDS-related topics etc.
D) The others
Propagative (not many) egalize/ egalize/ 003a/ 003a/
In Sum Drug misuse in Estonia is mainly problem of young people. Internet is used a lot by youngsters. Thus the internet could be of enormous importance in drug prevention in our country. Unfortunately the internet as a new and effective medium is underestimated at present and has yet to be taken full advantage of.