People's Democracy

FOR the last ten odd years, bad news have been coming no end from Russia, and many of these developments have been featured in these columns from time to time. But the news that has of late come is extremely worrying for the Russians. According to reports, the country is sliding down with a rapid pace into the morass of drug abuse, and that the incidence of drug addiction has gone up 20 times in the course of the last one decade. The Russian Federation is currently getting the supply of these illegal drugs mainly from Afghanistan and Central Asia.

According to an official estimate, out of a population of 146 millions in Russia, some four million to five million people are now taking drugs, and at least half of them are considered to be seriously addicted. However, this estimate is not considered reliable by independent experts who are of the opinion that the number of drug users in Russia stands at no less than ten millions. They also say that five million or six million out of these ten million drug users are seriously addicted to drugs. These, if true, are really staggering figures --- by any standards.

Experts are in no doubt that this alarming rise in drug abuse has been a consequence of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The said collapse gave rise to a veritable economic and social crisis that is now playing havoc with the lives of the Russians, compelling millions of them to seek solace in drugs and alcoholism.

During the same period, Afghanistan has emerged as the world’s biggest producer of drugs, far surpassing the Golden Triangle in South East Asia and Latin America. According to UN estimates, Afghanistan supplies three-fourths of the heroin being consumed in the world today. As Iran has effectively curbed drug-trafficking across its territory, the bulk of drugs produced in Afghanistan has been reaching Russia and Europe through the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union that have porous borders. According to the interior ministry of the Russian Federation, the share of drugs passing through Russia to Europe has dropped from 60 per cent five years ago to less than six per cent today. This means that 94 per cent of the incoming drugs is being consumed in Russia itself.

In addition to the heroin coming from Afghanistan, Russians are also consuming cocaine from Latin America and synthetic drugs from Europe.

The drug problem in Russia has grown to such alarming proportions that it is now being regarded as the fastest growing drug market in the world. Drugs are available in Russia in abundant supply and are comparatively cheap. One can get in Moscow one gram of heroin for just 30 to 40 dollars while the same quantity fetches 180 dollars in the West. (In Moscow alone, drug peddling fetches profits up to a billion dollars every year. The daily Izvestia’s estimate is of an the annual turnover of 30 billion dollars in drugs in the country.) This is said to be the main factor behind the rapid growth in the use of drugs and narcotics in the country.

Quite understandably, drug addiction is affecting the younger generations fastest. According to Dr Grigory Potemkin of the AMITI Institute, four out of every five Russian youth are familiar with drugs in many regions, including Moscow. (The institute specialises in preventive treatment of drug and alcohol addiction.) Drugs are freely sold at discos and nightclubs and peddled in practically all schools in Moscow. Viktor Sadovnichy, who is the rector of Moscow State University, the country’s most prestigious university, has expressed concern that a "structured network of drug dealers" is active among his 40,000 students, and that each addict induces 10 to 17 people to the habit during one year.

The worst hit by the menace are the towns and villages that are situated along the main roads leading from Central Asia to Russia’s western borders; this evidently has now become their biggest misfortune. Some of these habitations have nearly cent per cent incidence of drug addiction among their youth.

Moreover, as they say, misfortune never comes alone. The explosive growth in drug use has resulted in an equally explosive growth in HIV/AIDS cases, which jumped from 4,20,000 to 7,00,000 in 2000 alone, a 67 per cent increase. But this is just the beginning, and the fast growing evil of prostitution in the country, resorted to for easy money, threatens to compound the AIDS menace beyond redemption. According to Dr Vladimir Pokrovsky, who heads the National Centre For Fight Against AIDS, "If the current rate of infection continues, half the country’s population will be infected with the HIV virus within a decade."

The menace is naturally causing a lot of anxiety to the country’s leaders. Russian deputy health minsiter Gannady Onishchenko admits that the country’s very future is at stake. His warning is: "AIDS may cause the death or dissipation of the nation." The Russian Federation president, Vladmir Putin, views the drug problem as a "national security threat," while his prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov has more bluntly described the threat. His remark was that the narcotics are ruining the whole "generation that is due to take over from us."

But solving the problem lies beyond Russia’s reach --- to a significant extent. Drug trafficking has become the only way of earning a living for thousands of people in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia because of the extremely serious economic crisis and dislocation there. The fact that the citizens of Tajikistan, Khyrgyzia and some other republics do not need a visa to travel to Russia, makes the task of the drug carriers all the easier.

Those in the knowledge of things forecast a further rise in drug use in the country. Dr Grigory Potemkin, already referred to, is of the opinion that "We are heading for an 80 per cent nationwide incidence of drug use among young people." However, his optimism appears a bit incomprehensible when he adds that "Thereafter drug addiction will begin to subside, because it has never registered higher levels anywhere in the world."

But the saddest part of the story is that, not to talk of the rulers’ inability to provide a decent living standard to their people, they have so far failed to set up any effective mechanism to combat the drug menace despite its enormity. As Dr Vladimir Prokopenko, deputy chairman of the International Anti-Narcotics Committee, points out: "Out of the three essential conditions required to effectively combat drug addiction, Russia has none." He then elaborates: "It lacks political will, financial resources and scientific potential."

The fact is that the Russian government did announce two national level programmes to fight the drug menace, once in 1995 and then in 1997. But none of these programmes ever got going because of lack of financial resources. Worse, the government passed a law three years back, but it targets the addicts more than the drug dealers. The law of course prescribes prison sentence for those found guilty of either use or distribution and transport of even very minute amounts of drugs. But the fact remains that the enormous profit accruing from the trade enables the drug traffickers to bribe police and go scot-free. It is therefore mainly the users who find themselves in the net. Dr Prokopenko laments: "The government’s efforts to combat the drug menace are like trying to put out the Chernobyl reactor fire with a glass of water."

Ironically, in some of the cities like Yekaterenburg, it is the Russian mafia that is doing what the Russian government should have been doing. The mafia there has launched a war against the drug traffickers as it fears that the drugs would make the mafia groups’ potential recruits absolutely worthless.