Moscow: There are around two million drug abusers in Russia who depend on opiates and another three million take cannabis, hashish and synthetic drugs, according to the Russian Federal Drugs Control Service.
Of them 90 percent take Afghanistan's drugs, mainly heroin.
"It turned into a nationwide problem and without tackling this problem we cannot drastically change the situation," the head of the service, Viktor Ivanov, told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily today.
He said the priority of the state anti-drug policy, which draft has already been submitted to the president for consideration is anti-drug efforts on the international scene, as "heroin comes to Russia mainly from foreign countries" and "hashish also comes from Afghanistan”.
"It is necessary to engage the UNSC and to classify the production of drugs in Afghanistan, which is abnormal by its scale, as a global threat to peace and security," Ivanov said, adding this evil should be "equated to terrorism by its menacing potential”.
"Almost 100,000 people, including 30,000 in Russia, died of Afghanistan-made heroin per year. Last year's heroin output in Afghanistan comprised about 750 tonnes," he said.
The international force in Afghanistan has space reconnaissance and intelligence services and it certainly should obtain the information where and how much heroin is produced.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, February 04, 2010, 15:46