During the last 10 years the number of drug users in Russia has increased by 50 percent, reaching a total of 550,000, according to new statistics. Experts believe, however, that the real number of drug addicts in the country could amount to 2.5 million or two percent of the population, said Vladimir Vladimirov, head of the Administrative Department of the Federal Drug Control Service, speaking at a press conference held in St. Petersburg on Friday. At least 90 percent of illegal drugs in Russia come from Afghanistan, with the bulk of that volume made up of opiates, including heroin, Vladimirov said, Rosbalt reported. [continues 476 words]
AIDS continues to kill 8,000 people around the world each day. More than 38 million people are now living with HIV, with an increasing number of new infections among women and girls. Only one in five people living with HIV have access to prevention and treatment services. Worldwide, fifteen million children have been orphaned as a result of AIDS. AIDS is a global emergency and poses one of the most formidable challenges to the social development, progress and stability of the world. AIDS takes its heaviest toll among the young and most productive -- people aged 20 to 40 -- and the epidemic continues to threaten social stability and national security. [continues 1151 words]
One of the benefits of being Russian is that there is never a lack of constructive advice on sensitive social matters like immigration and ethnic and religious tolerance - not only from Russia's own liberals, but from friendly foreign countries and international nongovernmental organizations that are glad to instruct Russia on its duty to move toward the democratic standards of an open society. Russia need only adopt advanced Western models, they insist, and all will be well. Then again, maybe not. Recently, the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia made the following statement in a report on anti-Jewish violence in EU countries: "France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the U.K. witnessed rather serious anti-Semitic incidents such as numerous physical attacks and insults directed against Jews and the vandalism of Jewish institutions - synagogues, shops, cemeteries." Evidently, even some of Europe's longest-established democracies are not immune to such ugly behavior. [continues 896 words]
MOSCOW, There exists within Russia itself a significant base for the production of illegal narcotics. As reported by Rosbalt, Viktor Cherkesov spoke on this today at the first general meeting of the State Committee to Control the Use of Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances, which he heads. Citing the views of specialists, he said marijuana currently grows wild on 1 million hectares of Russian land. Moreover, he said, a second native source of raw material for drug production has increased in recent years: because of their poverty, greater numbers of people are cultivating marijuana and poppies on their private plots. Cherkesov said this raw material was then going out to the biggest cities of Russia and even to other countries. [continues 112 words]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - World anti-doping officials have drafted new rules that distinguish between true drug cheats and athletes who test positive for substances that don't help them perform better. The move by the World Anti-Doping Agency comes in response to cases where athletes have been stripped of medals after positive tests for recreational drugs or substances in cold remedies. WADA officials briefed the Association of National Olympic Committees on Thursday on draft proposals for a world anti-doping code, which Olympic leaders hope will be enacted before the 2004 Summer Games in Athens. [continues 149 words]
Sasha is a scrawny 15-year-old with big brown eyes and floppy hair. He lives with his mother and grandmother, gets frustrated with school and wants to be a carpenter or a car mechanic when he grows up. He sounds like a normal teenage boy. Except for the fact that he used to buy half a liter of gasoline a day and inhale the fumes after school. "I had hallucinations - I saw mice running all around me," Sasha says in a matter-of-fact tone, as he sits in the teenage boys' ward of Psychiatric Hospital No. 3, where he has been receiving treatment for substance abuse. He said he knew the habit could damage his brain, but that didn't stop him. [continues 1087 words]
