Over 1.5 mln Russians heroin addicts - chief anti-drug official
MOSCOW. Oct 23 (Interfax) - There are over 1.5 million heroin addicts in Russia who have two to eight drug injections per day, said Viktor Ivanov, the head of Russia's Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN).
"Thus, these people in Russia each year get over 2 billion heroin injections," he told the governmental healthcare commission on Friday, an FSKN spokesperson told Interfax.
"Our data fully confirms that one of the main causes of the spread of the HIV infection is the injection use of Afghan heroin. Practically all people who are diagnosed with HIV for the first time, used drugs intravenously or had sexual intercourse with injection drug users," Ivanov said.
"Not only are injection drug users not seeking treatment, but they also are trying to avoid any contact with medical institutions and with the authorities in general, i.e. they are a hard-to-access category. By living freely in the trenches of society, the army of drug users are sowing and intensively spreading infections diseases, all types of hepatitis, as well as HIV and AIDS," the FSKN chief said.
The launch of a national system for comprehensive drug addiction rehabilitation will help solve the problem of the HIV spread, Ivanov said.
Ivanov said earlier that drugs had killed about one million Russians over the decade. Almost 7.5 million Russians are occasional users, about 3 million use drugs on a daily basis, he said.
The FSKN told Interfax earlier that the most popular drugs in Russia are heroin, marijuana and spices. One and a half million Russian drug addicts use Afghan heroin. Each year drugs kill up to 90,000 young people in Russia, FSKN said.
