HEALTH-RUSSIA: Drug Use Rises Dramatically

By Kester Kenn Klomegah Reprint | | Print |

Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW, Mar 29 2005 (IPS) - The number of drug addicts in Russia has risen 15-fold over the past ten years to about half a million – and that is only the official estimate.

“More than half a million drug addicts were officially registered in Russia at the end of 2004, but according to experts the total could be between 3.5 million and four million people,” deputy chief of the parliamentary security committee Valentin Bobyrev told IPS.

“Some 70,000 Russians die each year from uncontrollable drug overdoses,” he said.

Bobyrev says the fast spread of drug culture among the young since the collapse of the Soviet Union could play havoc with both the health and the economy of the country.

“There are different levels of drug addicts – including surprisingly children from well-educated families – who just get hooked on drugs and can’t get rid of them any more,” he said.

“The rising tide of drugs has also triggered an increase in the number of drug-related crimes,” Bobyrev said. The Interior Ministry last week reported 248,000 drug-related crimes in 2004 compared to 220,000 in 2003.About 70 percent of drug addicts are aged under 30.

Drugs are increasingly available through more than 700 websites. Some also provide instructions on how to make them, Lt. Gen. Alexander Mikhailov from the Federal Drug Control Service said on Ekho Moskvy radio.

“Such websites are accessible in this country and abroad. We’ll have to contact providers, who have the right to close websites damaging public interests. We have serious plans to deal with this problem.”

These include steps to tackle promotion of drug use by those employed to prevent it, he said.

“We jailed many law enforcement officials involved in this criminal business last year,” Mikhailov said. “In fact, each law enforcement service had people jailed for involvement in criminal drug trade.”

The Federal Drug Control Service had reported earlier that about 100 representatives of law enforcement agencies were arrested in Russia last year on charges of involvement in dealing in illicit drugs.

The government has earmarked 240 million dollars this year to tackle drugs. But that is considered a paltry amount compared to the annual 12 billion dollar U.S. budget to fight drugs.

Government agencies and supporters of drug policy reform have been at odds over ways of arresting the spread of drugs. A new law that came into effect last May allows drug users to possess a greatly increased amount of illegal substances without risk of being imprisoned. The law has been praised by drug reform proponents but roundly criticised by law enforcement agencies as an added obstacle in the fight against dugs.

Lev Levison, head of the group New Drug Policy, says the increase in drug use is directly attributable to the new law which provides more for fines than jail sentences.

The group estimates that under the law, 30 to 40 percent of the drug related crimes registered last year would be considered just administrative violations punishable by fines.

“Legislation should also be brought in to concentrate on dealers and drug barons,” Levison told IPS.

Russia is at the same time seeking increased international efforts to block the growing drug traffic from Afghanistan. “Despite all the efforts the international coalition is making, Afghanistan is increasingly assuming the attributes of a drug state,” Russian special presidential representative Anatoly Safonov told Interfax.

According to UN data, cultivation of poppy (from which opium and heroin is made) grew 64 percent in Afghanistan in 2004, and has spread across the entire territory. Production of raw opium from poppy increased 17 percent last year to 4,200 tonnes. Revenue from smuggling of Afghan drugs to other countries is worth an estimated 2.8 billion dollars a year.

“This is probably a conservative estimate, because not everything lies on the surface,” Safonov said.

Afghanistan is the principal source of the drug threat to Russia, Safonov said. “We are making efforts together with our Tajik partners not to allow the border to collapse and be turned into a passage for drug dealers.”