RUSSIA FINALLY ADMITS TO ITS HIDDEN HEROIN EPIDEMIC

Surge In Abuse Blamed On West's Failings In Afghanistan, But Addicts
Go Untreated

At a playground just off the busy Prospekt Mira thoroughfare in
central Moscow, there aren't any children playing on the swings. The
slide is covered in dirty snow, the sandpit is strewn with empty
vodka bottles and, on close inspection, a few used syringes. Mothers
whisper to each other that the playground is the home of narkomany -
drug addicts - and wheel their pushchairs swiftly past.

It's just one small sign of a vast hidden epidemic of heroin use that
Russian officials and civil society groups say threatens the very
existence of the nation. "It's a threat to our national security, our
society, and our civilisation itself," said Viktor Ivanov, Russia's
top drugs official, at a meeting with reporters recently. He
estimated that there are more than two million drug addicts in
Russia, which amounts to one addict for every 50 Russians of working
age, a level that is up to eight times higher than in EU countries.

Most of these people are addicted to heroin which transits from
Afghanistan, through central Asia, and across the long and porous
border from Kazakhstan into Russia. There are people addicted to
heroin across Russia's 11 time-zones, and the country's anti-drugs
body says that Russia now uses more heroin than any other country in the world.

Mr Ivanov, a former KGB operative and a close associate of the Prime
Minister, Vladimir Putin, said the foreign occupation of Afghanistan
and the "war on terror" were the main factors behind Russia's drugs
epidemic, and compared Russia's drug problem to the situation in
China in the 19th century, when British traders brought opium to
China and vast swathes of the population became addicted.

Mr Ivanov will travel to Vienna today, where he will address a
special UN session on drugs and call for increased international
co-operation on finding solutions for Afghanistan. He will also
demand that Russia be included in the decision-making process on
Afghanistan -which he described as the "shame of the international
community" - and said that Russia was in favour of simply spraying
Afghan poppy fields with pesticides to kill the crops.

"Ninety per cent of those who are addicted to drugs in Russia use
Afghan drugs," said Mr Ivanov. "It's a simple equation - if there are
no poppies, there is no drugs traffic. Thank goodness politicians in
the West are beginning to admit the whole war on terror was
ill-judged. We've heard Barack Obama and David Miliband come out and
say that it was a mistake. The level of Afghan drugs production now
is 44 times higher than it was in 2001."

Both government and public health officials agree that the epidemic
of heroin addiction in Russia has reached terrifying proportions that
could in the long run prove devastating. But while the government
hints that the Western intervention in Afghanistan is the root cause
of Russia's drugs woes, its critics claim that Russian government
policy on drugs is responsible for worsening the epidemic.

"The Russian strategy is to stifle serious debate about the problem
and demonise drug users," said Dasha Ocheret, of the Eurasian Harm
Reduction Network in Moscow. "The goal is not to help people
suffering with addiction but to identify them, and then punish them.
No country in the world has ever been able to deal with its drug
problems in this way."

Any addict who seeks medical help for his or her addiction is
immediately put on the state "narcological register". This
information is available to police, who can have the drug user
arrested and put in prison, and causes huge problems for people if
they kick their habit and want to reintegrate into society.

A report by Human Rights Watch claimed that Russian policy decisions
on treating drug users were outdated and "deliberately ignore the
best available medical evidence and recommendations".

Substitution therapy using methadone is banned in Russia, and needle
and syringe exchange points are regarded as highly controversial.
"Task number one for any drug user is to hide away from everyone,"
said Ms Ocheret. "They worry that if they go to get clean needles and
syringes they will be arrested and sent to prison."

This in turn drives other devastating epidemics in the country, such
as hepatitis C and HIV/Aids. Russia has one of the fastest-growing
HIV epidemics in the world, with more than one million people thought
to be HIV positive in the country. Ten years ago, the epidemic was
mainly spread within the drug-using community, but now more than half
of new cases are sexually transmitted, as the disease spreads across
the population at large.

Whatever the reasons behind the epidemic of drug use, there is one
thing on which everyone is agreed. More than 30,000 people die from
drug use every year, and in a sparsely populated country with a
shrinking population, it's a statistic that the country cannot afford.