MOSCOW TO TAKE SPECIAL MEASURES AGAINST DRUG ABUSE.

MOSCOW, - Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has
suggested the pooling of efforts for the eradication of drug addiction.

He said that the Moscow government was going to adopt a law, which
would enable the law enforcement agencies to close down dancing and
youth clubs, which "show tolerance to the spreading of drug addiction
on their territory." Luzhkov pointed to "the imperfection of the
legislation and insufficient strictness in punishing drug dealers and
drug addicts." He urged the mass media to help the state and society
in inculcating in people "the philosophy of non- acceptance of narcotics."

Luzhkov put forward those ideas at a round-table conference in the
premises of the Argumenty i Fakty stock company, whose topic was "The
role of the mass media in preventing drug abuse among children and
young people."

Nikolai Kulikov, head of the Moscow Police Department, who took part
in the conference, said that this year the municipal law-enforcement
agencies would pay special attention to exposing the sources of
narcotics and to preventing their sale in Moscow. The Moscow
authorities will cooperate in it with the federal law-enforcement
agencies and with those of the CIS member states.

A total of 110 kilograms of narcotics were confiscated in Moscow in
1998. Four dens were eliminated. 10,000 crimes were registered in
1998, which were connected with drug sales.

The number of such crimes went up by 4.5 times over the past six
years.