Efforts to curb citizens' drug use have existed almost as long as drugs have been used. The Bible contains one of the earliest records of prohibitionist ideals, and treatments for drug addiction may go back to medieval times. In more recent times, most countries around the world have established national drug policies. Between 1989 and 1999, official national drug policies were introduced in 66 countries and a further 41 countries were developing national drug policies or had developed such a policy more than 10 years previously.[1]

Along with the rise in worldwide communication and trade, the use, manufacture and sale of drugs has become a global issue. According to UN, Interpol and Europol estimations, the drugs market has the second place in the world after weapons market, having a turnover of thousands billion dollars yearly. United Nations work to establish an international system of drug control in which countries are obliged to criminalize all non-medical use, manufacture and sale of drugs. Most developed countries also take direct action against drug production and trafficking. Yet illicit drugs play a major role in economies around the world and drug use continues to rise.

Treatment availability and policy focused on demand reduction rather than supply reduction is a growing trend in national drug policy, especially since intravenous drug users are at high risk of HIV/AIDS infection, however, criminal enforcement remains the central theme in world drug policy.

Political and economic change in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union brought with it many new freedoms. While this new openness gave rise to many positive developments in the region, it also had consequences - among them a surging supply of illegal drugs to meet a burgeoning demand. Drug availability expanded as organised crime networks gained strength and expanded operations. Meanwhile, the capacity of law enforcement to control illegal activity attenuated.

Overwhelming evidence now confirms a massive increase in drug use - particularly of heroin and other injectable substances - in most countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union during the past decade. Recent estimates suggest that there are currently between 2.3 and 4 million injecting drug users in the region and that the number of users is growing. Consequently, Eastern Europe has become the latest 'front-line' of the AIDS epidemic, an epidemic driven here almost entirely by injecting drug use. In 1995, in this region of about 450 million people, HIV infection was estimated at 30,000 people. HIV infections are reportedly doubling annually since 1998, and now it is estimated that more than a million people are infected.[2] These statistical data show that it is already an expanding international crisis, endangering the physical and mental health of especially young people.

The necessity to cope with the crisis has been well understood also by Romania, besides the other involved countries, taking also into account its geographical location, at the crossroad of the biggest European transport corridors and at equal distance from both drugs producing and greater drugs consuming countries.

Responding to this growing crisis, several international and national programmes have been developed. This paper is dealing with drugs crisis management issues in Romania, focusing on the crisis evolution, involved stakeholders, related crisis management measures and international co-operation. The theoretical framework used to analyse the case follows the cognitive - institutional approach[3], in order to see what was done for the mitigation of the crisis and what still lies ahead to be done, because countering drugs trafficking and consumption is a long time process, not a punctual action.