(from TASS - April 29, 1992)

By Ivan Alexandrovich

MOSCOW - Sitting in a dinning room, drinking tea and waiting for lunch is quite usual, only if it is not opium for the main dish. We are all watching TV in a small appartment in the Krasnogvardeiskij district of Moscow. Superchannel, video-clips, Madonna and Freddy Mercury. For two hours S. Has been cooking in the kitchen. From wild poppies, which come from central asia, the caucasus and Ukraine, he makes a solution of opium. From time to time he calls me into the kitchen to show the procedure of heating, filtering and distilling. He is young, about 26, and he gets excited about the dark brown colour of the opium solution. He asked me if I want to try, 'it's a great stuff'. His friend L. is getting nervous and asks how much longer it will take. Three times a day one ampule of 20ml is the minimum for drug addicts. One shot costs about 1,000 roubles. The group of five people who are waiting are all nicely dressed. Money is not a problem, they say. Using drugs is trendy in Moscow. Addicts feel superior to alc

oholics. A shot is more expensive, it takes skills to prepare the solution while the picture of an alcoholic, permanently dirty and begging for money, is appaling. A doctor at hospital 17, one of the four medical treatment centers for drug addicts in Moscow, says it is a way of protesting against society, 'just as rock'n'roll years ago.' An average drug addict is about 24 years old, according to a doctor at hospital 19. Youngsters try drugs out of curiosity and become addicted. They have money or know how to get it. The increase of crime and the growing number of drug addicts are related. S. Is ready, L. Prepares the syringes and needles and they shoot the solution into their veins. S. Veins are in such a bad shape that a friend has to assist him to inject the opium in his arm-pit. The use of drugs in Russia is not a new phenomenon, but it has never been as alarming. Communism in the former Soviet Union as a totalitarian system made drug trafficking difficult to almost impossible. The first sharp increase in

the number of drug addicts could be seen during the first years of perestroika. Hospitals are now offering therapies, which can cost up to 17,000 rubles a month. It is less than paying for drugs. Patients can check in and out voluntarily. A revolution, since only three years ago drug addicts were considered criminals rather than sick people. But drug wards, according to patients, are places only to get detoxificated, to sleep, to eat and to get ready to go home, just to start taking drugs again. There is very little of a therapy. Medicine is expensive, nurses are underpaid and not motivated and drug wards are looking quite depressing. About 2,100 drug addicts are registered in Moscow. R. Is one of them, 25 years old and taking drugs for two years. Now he is under treatment and hopes to emigrate soon, to the USA. He writes poetry and reads science fiction. 'It is quit boring in the hospital, but I feel much better now', he says. A. Is 27 years old and for eight years addicted to opium. He has an education o

f a broker and his outfit is alike. He has been to a therapy but without success. 'I don't have the will to quit drugs', he says, 'and what for?'. Observing suspects for hours from cars, communicating with state of the art walky-talkies and then tracking down drug dealers is the task for agents of the Moscow squad for combatting illegal drugs, headed by Valentin Roshchin. According to him, the drug business in Russia is flourishing and very profitibale, the margin goes up to 1000 per cent. Most of the drug dealers come from the Caucasus, the Kursky railway station is the entrance door for drugs to Moscow and trading places are the huge markets and anonymous appartments. According to Eduard Drozdov, the chief narcologist of Moscow, about 70 per cent of illegal drugs in the former Soviet Union are traded in the russian capital, but police officers claim the situation is under control. However, there are rumours that drug cartels from Colombia are looking for new markets in the former Soviet Union. The poppy f

ields in central asia and the southern republics are well known and, as Roshchin points out, Russia and the rest of Europe would be the growing market. At the moment, Moscow is probably the biggest street market in Europe and one can only hope it is not becoming the biggest drug market, with all the consequences.