HEROIN HOOKS CHILDREN OF NEW RUSSIAN RICH

'There are still 2 million junkies but at least heroin is not fashionable
any more'

The wealthy young patients at the Kundola medical centre, in thick woods a
few miles outside the Russian capital, live according to a strict regime.
Their comfortable suites in the clean, bright clinic in a heavily-guarded
compound have the air of a gilded cage.

The 24-hour security cordon and camera-monitored perimeter fence exist not
to stop them running away nor to protect them from attack, but to defend
them against the temptation that brought them here: heroin, which dealers
and friends of the addicts have been known to smuggle in or throw over the
fence.

The Kundola centre, where a three-week course of treatment costs at least
#2,500 - more than an average Russian earns in a year - is a symptom of the
drugs craze blighting the children of Russia's richest families.

Yakov Marshak, a senior doctor at the clinic, said the youngest patient
they had treated was 12.

"She didn't want to be cured. While she was here she dreamed about drugs,
drugs were the best thing in the world. She was very hostile," he said.
"Surprisingly, we managed to get her off drugs for several months."

The fashion for hard drugs among the hedonistic offspring of the rich hit
the headlines earlier this week when Liza Berezovskaya, daughter of
billionaire politician Boris Berezovsky, was arrested by police in St
Petersburg for possession of cocaine.

Miss Berezovskaya, aged 27, a Cambridge graduate, artist and buyer of
British art, is a member of the tusovshchiki - the "shuffled ones". This is
the name given to young people who frequent nightclubs in Moscow and St
Petersburg, switching venues and drugs as fashions change.

Russian newspapers reported that Miss Berezovskaya was held overnight and
released on bail after voluntarily surrendering 0.85 grammes of cocaine.
Her boyfriend, Ilya Voznesensky, a model and great-grandson of Joseph
Stalin, was also detained after police confronted them at a nightclub.

Russia has some of the harshest drugs laws in the world. Recently they were
tightened still further to criminalise not only dealing and possession but
also use, making it possible to imprison anyone who tests positive for
drugs, or admits to having used drugs. But few believe the tough stance
will get more people off drugs.

Statistics are unreliable, but it is believed that heroin users number
millions and, with needle-sharing rampant, the HIV virus is spreading
rapidly. Drugs appear to have tightened their grip on the bored,
Western-educated children of the elite.

Ben Aris, a contributor to a new Time Out guide to the Russian capital,
wrote in the English-language daily Moscow Times: "Moscow met heroin again
around 1996. Within six months a big chunk of clubland was hooked, but by
mid-1997 heroin usage was petering out. There are still about 2 million
junkies in Russia, but at least heroin is not fashionable any more. Coke is
fashionable."

Fashionable or not, nine out of 10 patients at the Kundola centre are
heroin addicts. Dr Marshak cures them by diet, the anti-opiate drug
naltrexon, the 12-step programme followed by Alcoholics Anonymous and yoga
exercises.

Dr Marshak also counsels distraught parents who find it difficult to
believe that their children are spending their new wealth on drugs.

"I would never have dreamed there were such wealthy people," Dr Marshak said.

"One father tried flying his daughter around the world, moving her every
three days
to cure her. But every time he brought her to a country where
she didn't speak the language and didn't know anyone, by evening she would
find out where the drugs were."

Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)