MINELRES: New publication: Minorities, Heroin Addiction and HIV in Estonia and
Latvia
MINELRES moderator
[email protected]
Tue Jul 1 14:02:07 2003
Original sender: Vadim Polestsuk <[email protected]>
New publication: Minorities, Heroin Addiction and HIV in Estonia and
Latvia
The Legal Information Centre for Human Rights (Estonia) and St.
Patrick's College (Ireland) have published the book by Irish scholar
Paul Downes "Living with Heroin: Identity, Social Exclusion and HIV
among the Russian-speaking Minorities in Estonia and Latvia" (ISBN
9985-9410-4-7).
"Living with Heroin" explores the inner worlds of mainly
Russian-speaking heroin addicts in Estonia through 27 interviews
concerning their attitudes to relationships, emotions, drug use, social
policy issues and their own future. The interviews are examined from the
perspectives of individual identity and the social context of addiction
levels in the Baltic States. Highlighting the alarming scale of the HIV
epidemic in Estonia particularly affecting Russian-speakers, Paul Downes
examines the Estonian and Latvian State Integration programmes which
propose education reforms to phase out Russian-speaking schools. Dr.
Downes argues on the basis of international psychological, educational
and sociological research that these programmes risk exacerbating a
cycle of social marginalisation, early school drop-out, heroin addiction
and HIV among their Russian-speaking minorities.
Paul Downes (Ph.D., Trinity College Dublin) is a lecturer in Educational
and Developmental Psychology at St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra,
Dublin City University, Ireland. During his respective Law and
Psychology degrees at Trinity College Dublin, he received several
academic awards including being elected a T.C.D Scholar of Law on the
basis of the Foundation Scholarship examination. An Erasmus Visiting
Lecturer in the Education Department at Warsaw University (2003), he was
a Lecturer in Law and Psychology at Concordia International University,
Estonia (1998-2001). He has recently completed a European Union funded
report for URBAN Ballyfermot on evaluating and designing psychological
services in Dublin schools. He is a member of the Management Committee
for Ana Liffey Drug Project, Dublin, has been published in the Jungian
Journal of Analytical Psychology, and is an Irish researcher for the
European Schools Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD 2003).
English copies of the book may be ordered from the Educational
Disadvantage Centre, St. Patrick's College (Dublin):
Drumcondra, Dublin 9
Telephone: +353-1 8842021
Fax number: +353-1 8376197
Email: [email protected]
Russian and Estonian translations of the book are available in the
Tallinn office of the Legal Information Centre for Human Rights:
Nunne 2, Tallinn 10133, Estonia
Telephone: +372 64 64 270
Fax number: +372 64 64 272
Email: [email protected].
LEGAL INFORMATION CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS