RUSSIA'S WAR ON DRUG ADDICTION IS NO EASY FIX

Addicts are being chained to their beds and drug dealers jabbed with needles
in Russia’s desperate war against narcotics, reports Mark Franchetti in
Yekaterinburg

LESS than a fortnight ago, heroin was the only thing on Stanislav’s mind. A
drug addict for five years, he spent his time roaming the streets of
Yekaterinburg, 1500km east of Moscow, breaking into homes and robbing people
to pay for his next fix.

Twice he tried to break free of the addiction, but each time he injected
himself only hours after leaving hospital. He may find it less easy to
discharge himself a third time, however, daunt, bale and with sunken eyes,
Stanislav, 21, is handcuffed to his bed, along with 16 other young addicts,
as part of a drug rehabilitation program whose harsh methods have caused
controversy across Russia.

Confined to the dormitory on the edge of town, the patients face their
withdrawal symptoms with nothing but bread and water.

"It's difficult and for the first few days I would have hanged myself if I
had had a chance," he said. "The handcuffs are tough but it’s the only way
to get me to stop."

The treatment is part of City Without Drugs, a clampdown on narcotics in
Yekaterlnburg organised by three well-known local businessmen believed to
have close links with organised crime.

Frustrated by the authorities’ failure to tackle the problem, the three (one
himself a former heroin addict) took matters into their own hands.

There is no shortage of takers for their scheme, which combines the program
for addicts with dozens of ferocious raids against suspected dealers.
Yekaterinburg, which lies on the crossroads of trafficking routes from China
and Afghanistan to the European part of Russia, has one of the worst
narcotics problems in the country with a staggering 200,000 users out of a
population of 1.5 million.

The campaigners began eight months ago by placing advertisements in
newspapers giving a pager number where citizens could leave anonymous
tip-offs. They have received about 8000 messages, including the names and
addresses of dealers and addicts.

In one incident last autumn, about 500 athletic young men, believed to be
close to the local Uralmarsh, Zentralni and Signi mafia gangs, descended in
a fleet of Mercedes on the Gipsy district, the city’s main heroin market, to
warn off traffickers.

On another occasion, a suspected dealer was seized during one of the group’s
regular street patrols and tied to a tree with a sign saying he was
poisoning the city’s youth. His trousers were pulled down and hypodermic
needles jabbed into his legs in front of a camera crew from a local
television station.

Others have had their legs broken or homes set on fire, "We beat them like
dogs," said Yevgeni Roitzman, 38, one of the organisers, who has gone from
boxer to owner of several jewellery shops. "The problem can be solved only
with tough measures. You can say that it’s not civilised but I am damned if
I am going to let drug dealers destroy my children. Now at last they are
really scared."

Conditions at the centre are harsh: only after the first three weeks of
treatment are the patients’ handcuffs removed and their diet improved.
Demand from desperate parents is so great that another centre is being built
to deal with a waiting list of 100 drug users.

The reaction of authorities has been mixed. At first, the police supported
the campaign, but relations have since cooled — Roitzman and his colleagues
say some senior otficers take money from the gangs and claimed to have
handed evidence of this to the FSB, the KGB's successor. For their part, the
businessmen have been accused of using the campaign as a means of winning
popularity, paving the way for a possible bid for political power. Others
say they just want to control the drugs business themselves.

Amid rising tension, police last week raided the offices of Igor Varov,
another of the three. His gun was confiscated and he has received death
threats.

"I am a legitimate businessman trying to clean up my home town," Varov said.
"The police are the ones who control the drug business in Yekaterinburg and
we are going to put an end to it. Let them just try to shut us down."