FSKN: drug addiction rate on decline in Russia
MOSCOW. Feb 25 (Interfax) - Heroin consumption has alarming rates in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities of Russia, Federal Drug Control Service Director Viktor Ivanov said in an interview with Interfax on Tuesday.
"Heroin is supplied wherever there is money and lots of young people. Heroin is routed to megalopolises. The situation is complicated not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg but also in Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Tomsk and so on," he said.
"We have developed a system of drug consumption monitoring and have counted 8 million people doing drugs. These numbers have been relatively steady for the past five to six years and there is a slight downward trend now," Ivanov said.
Some 1.5 million Russians do heroin and acetylated opium. "That is a very big number," Ivanov said.
Three million Russians do marijuana and another three million do synthetic drugs, he said.
According to Ivanov, a heroin dose price on the Russian black market varies from $50 to $100.
