The Republic of Slovenia (Slovenia) is a European Union Member State located in the southern part of Central Europe. In 2015 the population of Slovenia was 2,068,000 people.According to the latest available estimates, there were 6,100 PWID in Slovenia in 2011. HIV prevalence among PWID is 1.4%? hepatitis C is 32.1% and hepatitis B is 5.6%.
Drug use was decriminalized in Slovenia in 2000. Purchasing drugs for private use is not considered a criminal offence.
The legal environment for implementing harm reduction programs in Slovenia is highly favorable, because drug use is not criminalized. These programs operate nationwide, providing sterile injecting equipment, information and counseling at nine fixed sites and 178 different outreach locations across the country. The major recent development in NSPs is the piloting of a drug consumption room program in Ljubljana in 2015.
Opioid substitution therapy (OST) is currently being provided at 19 sites. There are different treatment options to address different needs of OST clients and their health status. The overall OST coverage in 2013 was 65% of opioid users, which is higher than the minimum World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation (40%).
The main funder of the Slovenian HIV response and harm reduction programs is the country’s government. The high levels of service coverage and accessibility for PWID imply that the financial support from the government is sufficient to ensure the continuity and sustainability of harm reduction programs.