Drug addiction treatment in Denmark
In Denmark, the municipalities are responsible for organising both the social and medical treatment of drug users, but they can delegate all or part of the treatment to private institutions or to other municipalities. Drug addicts are guaranteed access to treatment within 14 days of the first contact or request from the drug addict. The treatment is focused on handling the drug dependency as well as the social and medical problems related to drug abuse. It is estimated that there are about 33.000 drug dependent persons in Denmark, including 20.000 heroin addicts, of whom half of them are taking heroin intravenously. The latter group is characterised by having a particular large number of health-related problems. In 2014 there were 16.000 persons in treatment including 7.000 persons in substitution treatment, mainly with methadone. It is difficult for the treatment system to both attract and retain the drug dependent persons in treatment.