Russia calls for classifying Afghan drugs as global threat

MOSCOW, February 4 (Itar-Tass) - There are around 2 million drug
abusers in Russia who depend on opiates and another 3 million take
cannabis, hashish and synthetic drugs, the Russian federal drugs control
service cites such statistics.
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, said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily on
Thursday.
He noted that 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 UN Security Council " 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 that 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 for a year. Last year's heroin output in
Afghanistan comprised about 750 tonnes, this is enough for production of
150 billion of the so-called single doses," 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. "But they do not give us this
information," Ivanov said.
"We have different views on the Afghan problem, but I can say that at
present, the dialogue with our U.S. partners is being established. To tell
the truth I do not agree with U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and
Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, who believes that there is no need to destroy
drug-containing plants, because, as the envoy says, destruction of poppy
crops will spread the wave of discontent among farmers and will push them
into embrace of the Taliban," Ivanov said.
"But will security of the military contingent in Afghanistan improve
from this? And drug barons, in fact, have got the indulgence," he said.
At present, the Tajik border is practically transparent and "heroin
simply goes through the whole Central Asia to Russia." "The flow runs not
only to our country, but also to Europe through Iran, Turkey and further
to the Balkans. At present, Kosovo became the main European distributor of
heroin: Some of these drugs are trafficked to feed terrorism in the North
Caucasus," Ivanov said.
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