The Guardian: How three drug users took on the might of the Russian state
“The Russian government has a notoriously punitive attitude towards drugs. Substitution treatments are banned and the only option for recovering addicts is to go cold turkey. But three drug users who have struggled for years with their addiction and have become life-threateningly ill as a result, claim that this policy is an abuse of their human rights, and are taking the Russian state to court. … After four years of [domestic] litigation and evidence collection, they have submitted their applications to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, seeking a judgment against the legal prohibition of [opioid substitution therapy (OST)] in Russia…” (Larsson, 9/14).