Heroin Use in Russia Jumps, With Related Rise in HIV Incidence
By Louis Charbonneau
Originally published by Reuters, June 26, 2002
VIENNA (Reuters) — The United Nations' drugs watchdog said on Wednesday the use of heroin and other opiates in Russia was soaring, helping the HIV/AIDS virus spread like wildfire among addicts who inject the drug.
The UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) 2002 annual report on global narcotics trends said the number of known drug addicts in Russia rose by 30 percent in 2000 over 1999 and had quadrupled versus 1995.
Directly linked to the number of injecting drug users (IDUs) was a jump in infections from contaminated needles that can spread the HIV virus.
"Russia also has one of the highest rates for IDU-related HIV in the world, which shows signs of rapid increase," the report said. Cases rose to 36,494 in 2000 from 10,678 in the previous year.
The executive director of the Vienna-based ODCCP, Antonio Maria Costa, said it was difficult to give precise figures for consumption of specific drugs, but he said there was a clear trend of rising heroin and opiate use across Eastern Europe.
The report said there may have been a temporary drop in Russian heroin use late last year after the US-led attack on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan sharply cut the flow of heroin from what was once the world's biggest producer of heroin.
Illicit opium production in Afghanistan fell 94 percent in 2001 after the Taliban banned the source of heroin a year earlier. But the UN estimates production will rise to between 1,900 and 2,700 metric tons in 2002, which would make it once again the top producer.
The ODCCP said the total value of opium production for Afghan farmers was $265 million in 1999 and $91 million in 2000. Given the economic hardships of war-torn Afghanistan, it may be difficult to discourage farmers from growing opium poppy.
"The high prices of opium could only add to the incentive for farmers to replant opium poppy," the report said.
Costa said the key to breaking the world's opium trade lay in Afghanistan and that the UN would keep trying to get the farmers to stop growing opium by funding other crops.
The ODDCP has also registered a global rise in the use of amphetamine-type stimulants, such as ecstasy. There are an estimated 33 million users of amphetamines and seven million ecstasy users worldwide, it said.
There are 13 million opiate users and the same number using cocaine, the ODCCP said.
