Romanian Presidential Committee Proposes Legal Prostitution, Clean Needle Programs

The committee launched Tuesday at the presidential palace, before the head of state, the report on the risks and social inequities in Romania.

Regarding the consumption of illegal drugs, the committee proposed the introduction, in neighborhoods with drug problems, of coin operated clean needle dispensers, to prevent the sharing of needles. The committee proposes the „disincrimination of drug consumption – not trafficking – to bring consumers to the surface.”

„Drug abuse needs to be discouraged, but with the adequate difference made between soft drugs and hard drugs, especially the ones injected such as heroin, which have devastating negative effects. The incrimination of drug abuse produces severe side effects, such as the sharing of needles, which leads to the transmission of serious diseases. Another imperative is the maintaining of programs and street intervention services developed by NGOs and the financing of these actions from local budgets, since they reduce the risks by providing consumers with clean needles in exchange for the used ones,” the committee’s document reads.

The creation of special services for drug consumers, within the general Social Services and Child Protection Departments, is another priority mentioned by the committee.

Regarding prostitution and the spread of HIV, the members of the committee propose, in the report, the legalization of „commercial sex” and the creation of services and special centers where prostitutes can receive free condoms as well as medical, social and psychological assistance.

„The legalization of commercial sex (not that of sexual service intermediaries) would offer a possibility to control sexually transmitted diseases. Imposing such a measure without an analysis based on the experience of other states and without consideration for Romania’s particularities, however, would generate unwanted effects. The creation of services and special centers through which the women practicing commercial sex could receive assistance (medical, social, psychological) and free condoms would ease their situation,” the document reads.