The outgoing head of the Organization Against Drugs (OKANA) Constantinos Ballas told Kathimerini yesterday that the law should be changed so that drug users are not punished but instead given help.

Ballas decided to step down from OKANA after 15 months in charge, citing personal reasons, but left his position calling for a change in the law.

“Drug users should not be punished, they should not be jailed,” said Ballas. “This does not mean we should decriminalize the use of drugs because this would be unacceptable and counterproductive, but we should be targeting the major drug pushers, not the small-time dealers.”

Ballas said that one of OKANA’s successes had been making the treatment of drug addicts part of the national health system so they are no longer dealt with in isolation.

However, he admitted that more needed to be done to reduce waiting times for treatment for addicts.

There are some 4,000 people on OKANA’s waiting list and the average waiting time is four years.