“International Originations say that over 30 percent of prisoners in Kyrgyzstan are drug addicts, half of which are injection drug users,” Marat Jamankulov representative of the Justice Ministry said at the round table conference Methadone Fate in Bishkek on October 2.

When asked about if Kyrgyzstan may align with western countries in implementation of replacing methadone therapy the official answered: “We should take into consideration that Kyrgyzstan’s penal system is funded only by 30 percent, when in the West – by 100. Moreover the West practices cell imprisonment, when we still have a camp system.”

International drug policy expert Alexander Zelichenko says that there is no country in the world, even in a well-developed one, where it would be possible to stop drug channeling to prisons.

“Medical workers of methadone centers should learn to talk to patients. It is easy just to make an injection. But medics should talk to a patient, maybe he will decide to give up a fatal habit,” the expert said.