MOSCOW, June 24 (ItarTass) A Conference on
Cooperation between the State and the Society in
Tackling Social Problems Linked with Drug Trafficking opened in
Moscow today. It was organised by the International Association
for Combating Drug Addiction and Narcobusiness. A message of
greetings from Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin was read out
at the beginning of the conference. It points out that Russia has a
state programme for combating drug addiction.

President of the Association Vladimir Burlak stressed that today
drug addiction had already spread out from the large cities to the
rest of the country. Ten years ago only 2030 narcotic crimes were
recorded in the regions. Their figure grew tens of times over in
1996.

Speaking about the importance of ensuring the cooperation of all
the existing structures in the struggle against drug trafficking,
Duma member and President of the public movement "For Healthy
Russia" Ella Pamfilova stressed that any liberal attitude to the
use of narcotics in the Russian society was absolutely
impermissible.
She said that drugs no longer constituted only medical and
criminal problems, but were now problems of politics and
economy.

Addressing a press conference here, ViceChairman of the
External Religious Relations Section of the Russian Orthodox
Church Archbishop Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk said that the
church was very much disturbed by drug addiction among the
young people. "Drugs and intoxicating substances destroy one's
individuality, which leads to the erosion of morality and spiritual
values. A human being loses selfcontrol and forgets that he is
responsible to God for his life and image," the Archbishop stated.

kli/

[Copyright 1997, Comtex]