At the same time, the study records a positive trend – according to students themselves, access to drugs is becoming lower.
“Students confirm that access to tobacco products, cannabis and other psychoactive substances in Moldova is quite low – compared to other countries we are at the tail end of the list. But everything related to e-cigarettes shows a significant increase and this is a cause for concern,” said Nicolae Želamski, director of the National Public Health Agency at a parliamentary hearing on the respect of fundamental human rights in the process of preventing addictions – addictive behaviors.
According to Grigore Novak, chairman of the parliamentary commission for human rights and interethnic relations, adults are to blame for the spread of e-cigarettes among young people:
“We have to call things by their names. We want strategies, financial coverage, and yet we make advertisements, including heated tobacco products and electronic devices. It’s a paradoxical situation.”
Addiction doesn’t come alone
Experts say that “addiction never comes alone” and that it doesn’t necessarily start with drugs, but also with alcohol, smoking, social media, video and gambling.
There are no specialists in addictology (specialists in addictive behavior) in Moldova. There is also no methodology of drug classification, which reduces the accuracy of prevention programs.
Maria Virlan, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Special Psychopedagogy at the I. Creanga State Pedagogical University, noted that there should be a classification of drugs in the country – by degree of harmfulness, toxicity, and impact on society.
“It is necessary to start prevention from an early age, because the age of onset of consumption is decreasing – we observe children who have already started using addictive substances and exhibiting other addictive behaviors,” Virlan said.
Ambulance saves, police fines
Experts also note the need to focus on decriminalizing possession of substances for personal use. The Equality Council suggests removing the language about illegal drug use without a doctor’s prescription from the law.
“There is a provision in section 85 of the Contravention Code that sanctions illegal drug use without a doctor’s prescription. This led to a specific situation: a woman felt bad because of an overdose, called an ambulance, the ambulance arrived, and with it the police. And now the ambulance saves her, and the police fine her for drug use,” said Jan Feldman, Chairman of the Equality Council.
According to the National Health Insurance Company, in 2025, the Republican Narcological Dispensary financed more than 10 thousand cases of rehabilitation of drug addicts in the amount of about 2 million lei. In the districts, treatment with methadone substitution therapy provided over 70 thousand visits for a total amount of 5.3 million lei.
In August this year, the government, with the support of the Council of Europe, plans to approve the National Strategy on Drugs and Addictions for 2026-2032.
