"According to the most recent data (2011):
"Any illicit drug use¹: almost one in every 6 students aged 15-19 (15.3%) have used an illicit drug at least once in their lifetime. Twice as many male (21.1%) than female students (9.4%) have used drugs in their lifetime. Drug use increases with age: lifetime prevalence increases from 7.4% at the age of 15, to 21.9% and 40.2% at the ages of 18 and 19, respectively. Drug use is significantly higher in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki (19.3% and 19.4%, respectively) compared to the other areas (12.0%) (Table 2.1).
"Drugs: cannabis (13.4%) and inhalants (14.1%) are the drugs most commonly used by students. Lifetime prevalence of drugs other than cannabis and inhalants was below 3% in 2011. Irrespective of the drugs used, boys use drugs in significantly higher proportions compared to girls (Table 2.1).
"Recent and current use
"Data on recent (i.e., use in the last 12 months) -and current use (i.e., use in the last 30 days) is available only for cannabis. In 2011, one in every 10 students aged 15-19 (10.4%) reported recent - and one in every 16 (6.3%) current use of cannabis. The male to female ratio was 2 to 1 for current use (14.3% and 6.4%, respectively), and 3 to 1 for current use (9.1% and 3.3%, respectively). Recent and current use increases significantly by age. Finally, twice as many students in Athens and Thessaloniki than students in other areas report recent and current use (Table 2.2)."

"Over time, with the exception of cannabis, there is no significant variation in the lifetime prevalence of any substance use. For cannabis in particular, following the decline recorded from 2002 to 2006, prevalence rates increased between 2006 and 2010 (Figure 2.3), with the increase being significant only among boys.
"It is to be noted that the increase in cannabis use prevalence from 2006 to 2010 reflects all, lifetime use (3.7% and 7.2%, respectively), last year use (3.1% and 6.3%, respectively) and last month use (2.2% and 4.1%, respectively). The increase in cannabis prevalence also applies to trying the substance 1 or 2 times (1.6% and 3%, respectively) and to using the substance more than 3 times (2.1% and 4.2%, respectively)."

"Furthermore, according to the Eurobarometer survey findings, young people in Greece compared to the European / EU27 average:
"• Report lower prevalence rates of use of “legal highs” (a variety of new drugs in the form of powder, pills or herbal mixtures);
"• Report higher percentages of perceived “high risk” associated with the use of cannabis 1-2 times (38% vs. EU/27 average of 23%) and cocaine (72% vs. 66%), while fewer of them perceive of ecstasy use 1-2 times as being risky (54% vs. EU/27 average of 59%).
"• Twice as many as the EU/27 average think it is “impossible” for them to have access to heroin (47% vs. EU average of 24%), cocaine (42% vs. 19%), ecstasy (41% vs. 20%), cannabis (28% vs. 11%), while higher rates are also recorded for access to alcohol and tobacco. Among the countries that participated in the survey, only in Cyprus and Finland were the rates similar to the Greek ones.
"• Report in lower percentages that in order to get information about drugs they would use the “internet” (45% vs. EU average of 64%), the “media” (9% vs. 15%) or “a friend” (23% vs. 37%), while report in higher percentages “parents or other relatives” (35% vs. 28%) and, especially, “prevention centers” (38% vs. 20%) as likely sources of information.
"• Report in lower percentages that they would support tough measures (penalties/sanctions) against drug users as the response to the drug problem (17% vs. EU/27 average of 33%)."

"The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) is responsible for collecting data from the judicial services on the number of individuals convicted for drug-related offences and reports them to the Greek REITOX Focal Point on a yearly basis. The latest available data are for the year 2009 (Figure 9.2). Of a total of 45 127 convicts, 1 818 (4.0%) were convicted for drug-related crimes. The overwhelming majority (96.3%, ?=1 751) are men. 1 222 individuals (67.2%) were convicted for drug use, possession or cultivation of a small quantity for personal use, 520 individuals were convicted for drug use, dealing and trafficking (28.6%), 61 individuals for drug dealing and trafficking (3.4%), and 15 individuals for drug cultivation / production (0.8%). Figure 9.3 shows the distribution of convicts by gender and drug-related offence in the four-year period 2005-2009. In the period under consideration there has been no significant variation in the distribution of convicts by gender and drug-related offence.
"Most of the offences (32.4%) were committed in the region of Attica, 30.5% in the region of Central and West Macedonia, 8.1% in the Peloponnese, 7.9% on Crete, 6.4% in the region of East Macedonia and Thrace, 4.9% on the Aegean islands, and 9.8% in the rest of the country. It is pointed out that the two regions where most of the offences were committed were again Macedonia and Attica in the years 2005-2008, too."

"The probable number of problem drug users in Greece continues to be estimated every year by the internationally recommended 'capture-recapture' method, based on the annual data from the
Treatment Demand Indicator. An appropriate statistical model is fitted to the records from three sources of information: KETHEA, 18 ANO and the rest of the network of treatment services reporting to the Focal Point. This permits the estimation of the 'hidden population' of people who are problem drug users but did not happen to be recorded by any of these sources in the year in question. Because of this method of estimation, the definition of a problem drug user is someone who may eventually attend the treatment services because of his or her use of opiates. The lack of data in the appropriate form from other sources that might record problem drug users, such as the Police, is regrettable as it prevents checking and possible improvement of our current estimates.
"The estimated total number of problem drug users aged 15-64 years with main substance heroin was 20,473 in the year 2011, with 95% confidence interval from 18 529 to 22 688. This is down from the previous year’s estimate of 22,515 (95% c.i. from 20,202 to 25,171), although as always it is necessary to take into account that the confidence intervals are very wide. However, the 2010 estimate was in turn down from the 2009 figure of 24,097 (95% c.i. 21,362 – 27,272) and thus it appears that the generally increasing trend which had been observed since 2002 may have come to an end. Table 4.1 gives the breakdown of the estimated number of problem drug users by gender, age and place of residence. Table 4.2 presents corresponding estimates of the number of drug users who reported that they had injected in the previous month. The estimated total of 7 847 (95% c.i. 6,904 – 9,951) is likewise reduced in comparison to the previous two years."

"According to KEELPNO [Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention] (2012), throughout the recent years no more than 20 cases which had IDU as a probable source of transmission were reported annually in Greece (Figure 6.1). IDUs never represented more than 2–3% of all total reported cases (Figure 6.2). In 2011, a total of 256 HIV cases were attributed to injecting drug use, with this route of transmission representing 26.8% of all reported cases that year (Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.2). Between January 1st and August 31st 2012, 768 HIV cases have already been recorded in KEELPNO’s surveillance system, 314 of which (40.8%) were reported as IDU cases (Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.2) (Nikolopoulos 2012).
"Among the 2011 IDU cases, four in every 5 (about 80%) were males, one in every 2 (about 55%) aged between 25-34 years and four in every 5 (about 80%) Greek nationals (Table 6.1) (note that as between January 1st and August 31st 2012 a significant increase has been observed in the number of non-Greek IDU cases an increase which also reflects changes in testing policy)."

"Trends in infectious diseases hold particular interest. Whereas tuberculosis incidence continued its declining trend (according to the Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, reported new cases of tuberculosis decreased by 26.8% between 2007 and 2010),⁵⁵ Greece surprisingly faced 3 infectious disease outbreaks in a period of less than 18 months, between July 2010 and December 2011: an outbreak of West Nile virus infection in northern Greece between July and October 2010, including 197 patients with neuroinvasive disease and 35 deaths⁵⁶; an outbreak of malaria in southern Greece between May and October 2011, including 63 cases, of which 40 reported no travel history to endemic countries⁵⁷; and worsening trends in HIV infection between 2010 and 2011, such as a 57.2% increase in newly diagnosed cases of HIV-1 infection (from 607 new cases in 2010 to 954 cases in 2011) and a 1506.7% increase of newly diagnosed cases of HIV-1 infection among injection drug users (from 15 cases in 2010 to 241 cases in 2011).⁵⁸
"In all 3 examples, outbreaks were initially attributed to environmental risk factors^59,60 or to migrant populations.^60,61 Nevertheless, the public health measures that have been retrospectively implemented for the control of the epidemics (intensified distribution of needles and condoms among injection drug users, intensification of vector- and mosquito-control activities) imply that the risks of transmission had not been addressed through prevention, most likely because of the dismantling of services previously provided by national and regional public health agencies. For example, the number of needles and condoms that were freely distributed to injection drug users by public preventive programs decreased sharply in 2010 (by approximately 31% compared with 2009) just before the marked increase in newly diagnosed cases of HIV-1 infection.⁶² Mosquito-control activities implemented by public local authorities also were delayed in 2011 because of financial problems.⁶³"

"In 2011, a total of 92 treatment units offered drug treatment in Greece: 42 OST units (33 buprenorphine and 9 providing mainly methadone); 43 drug-free treatment programmes (11 inpatient/adults; 19 outpatient/adults, 12 outpatient/adolescents; and 1 detoxification unit) (Figure 5.1); and 7 drug-free treatment programmes for imprisoned and released drug users (see Chapter 9 for prison data).
"Alongside the treatment units, in 2011 there were 45 counselling centres in total: 31 counselling centres for adults and 10 for adolescents and young adults and 4 counselling centres for released drug users (see Chapter 9 for prison data).
"The main developments in the availability of treatment services in 2011 are the following⁶:
"• OKANA launched 22 new OST units within public general hospitals in Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki, while 5 OST units (2 in Athens, 2 in Piraeus and 1 in Thessaloniki) suspended operations. In specific, in August 2011, the number of OKANA OST Units was 25, and two months later it was doubled to 42. In August 2012, 52 units operated across the country, while it is estimated that 13 additional units will be ready to operate in next months (Micha 2012). Most of the units are hosted in hospitals and staffed by the existing ????? and/or hospital staff.
"• KETHEA launched a Treatment Programme for Women in Eleonas prison, Thebes, which became operational late in December 2010.
"• OKANA ATRAPOS (the detoxification unit for adolescents in Athens), which had been in the evaluation phase in 2010, suspended operations.
"• OKANA NAFTILOS (the treatment unit for adolescents in Thessaloniki) suspended operations.
"• KETHEA EXANTAS (counselling and early intervention centre) no longer offers treatment services."

"Most of the clients (6,754) report opioids as their primary drug, followed at a great distance by cannabis (243) and cocaine (93) (data for 57 of the 61 structures). Injecting use prior to admission was reported by 4,192 clients in treatment in the reporting year (data for 55 of the 61 structures). Out of “all clients”, 2,400 (32.3%) are aged over 40 (data for 59 of the 61 structures).
"With regard to treatment outcome, 55 of the 61 structures reported the relevant data. More specifically, 4,039 clients (62.9%) continued in treatment until the end of 2010. As for the modes of exit from treatment programmes, 2,385 clients (37.1%) withdrew from the programmes while the prevailing modes are premature discharge (38.2%), dropout (28.9%), treatment completion (24.4%) and referral to another unit or service (5.3%)."

"In the period 2002-2010, the capacity of treatment programmes steadily increased. Figure 5.2 illustrates this increase, which is a direct consequence of the increasing number of treatment structures over the years. Similarly, the number of “all clients” in treatment per year increased, as demonstrated by the sum of clients already in treatment and “admissions” (3,745 in 2002 versus 8,067 in 2010).
"More specifically, in 2010 treatment programme capacity increased by 10,8% compared to 2009. There is also an increase by 8.3% in total number of clients who received main treatment in the reporting year compared to 2009. Last year, the increase in capacity was commensurate with the increase in the number of clients (10.8% and 8.3% respectively). As for the mean power, there is an increase by 9.9% compared to 2009."

"The National Plan against Addictions for the period 2011-2012, which was prepared by the Committee, takes into consideration the constraints imposed by the economic crisis and consequent fiscal austerity and attempts to streamline expenditure. The main goals of the National Plan in the field of demand reduction (with a special reference to treatment) are the following6:
"• to increase treatment availability and access to all treatment modalities;
"• to extend treatment to special populations of dependent users (army recruits, prisoners, immigrants);
"• to shorten the waiting list for OST;
"• to enhance treatment services
"Against the unfavourable backdrop of economic crisis and spending cuts, in 2010 the agencies embarked on the implementation of the National Plan against Addictions and expanded their activities and their units. In August 2011, the Minister for Health announced 40 new units of the OKANA OST Programme, most of which will be hosted in hospitals and staffed by the existing ????? and/or hospital staff."