Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 16:09:00 -0400

From: fweir.ncade@rex.iasnet.ru

For the Hindustan Times

From: Fred Weir in Moscow

MOSCOW (HT) -- Vassily Bakanov, dressed in a silk bathrobe and wired up to a diagnostic computer, has just checked into an exclusive Moscow clinic for his third attempt to kick a heroin addiction.

``My boss said I had to do this, so here I am,'' says the dark-haired, burly, 33-year old businessman. ``It's a pain, but I do what my boss tells me.''

Drug addiction has exploded since the collapse of the USSR wrenched open Russia's borders with the world. Health officials estimate that perhaps a million Russians are heavy users of newly-discovered chemical diversions such as heroin, cocaine and barbiturates.

Unlike the vast majority, Mr. Bakanov can afford $200 a day to go through withdrawal in comfort and constantly attended by a doctor, at Medinar, one of a tiny handful of new private drug rehabilitation clinics.

The average monthly wage in Russia is about $120.

``Drug addition afflicts people of all social classes these days,'' says Alexander Fonin, head doctor at Medinar. ``Our clients are wealthier people, including bandits, high-class prostitutes. We don't ask.

``They want to be taken care of properly. They will not go into a state institution where there are no facilities, no medicine, no expertise, nothing.''

Across town, in state-run Hospital Number 17, the dimensions of the problem become more obvious. Dozens of heroin addicts are locked in a ward and often strapped into beds while they go through the gruelling week-long detoxification ordeal. There is one doctor for every 30 patients.

``This is a new and unexpected problem in this country, and the medical system is already overwhelmed by it,'' says Alexander Gofman, a drug addiction expert at the Russian Institute of Psychiatry.

``Drugs are pouring into Russia and bringing about sharp changes in social behaviour patterns. It is a catastrophe in the making.''

Dr. Gofman says the Russian police and medical profession are used to dealing with alchoholism and its effects, but are often baffled when they run up against drug addicts.

``Heroin addiction creates far more dangerous pathologies than alchoholism,'' he says. ``Addicts turn to crime to feed the habit, and this is certainly one major factor behind the crime wave in Russia.

``Cocaine also stimulates violent behaviour, but it is still very expensive and so remains a plaything of the rich. Thank God very little crack (a cheap cocaine derivative common in the U.S.) has appeared on our streets so far.''

Moscow police say the rate of drug-connected crime has doubled in the past two years, and the fastest-growing category of offenders are teenagers.

``Young people are attracted to this life because it seems fast and exciting,'' says Vladimir Charikov, a spokesman for the Moscow police narcotics squad.

``There is no public propaganda to warn them of the danger. The schools have no educational programs about it yet,'' he says. ``Frankly, most police officers are unaware of what to look for.

``Drug dealing and use is spreading far faster than we can even monitor it.''

Police say inexpensive opiates -- mostly heroin -- are coming from Afghanistan, a central Asian country that the Soviet Union invaded almost twenty years ago and which has been wracked by war ever since.

``This is a kind of revenge against us,'' says Mr. Charikov. ``The Afghans have no economy except drugs, and since the Soviet Union broke up the borders are almost open. Russia is the largest nearby market.''

Earlier this year President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree ordering the Health Ministry to set up proper drug rehabilitation centres in all major Russian cities, to provide some alternative for those who won't face the hell of Hospital #17 and can't afford Medinar.

But the decree neglected to assign government funds to do the job.

``It's frustrating. There are so many terrible problems in this country, and no money to deal with any of them,'' says Anatoly Shevchenko, the Health Ministry's chief narcologist.

``We are trying to convince local authorities that it's in their interest to finance these clinics themselves, but so far not one has been established,'' he says.

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Johnson's Russia List

1 June 1997

djohnson@cdi.org