In sad tally, Russia counts more than 4 million addicts

Russia has more than 4 million drug addicts, according to official statistics, Lieutenant General Aleksandr Mikhailov, deputy chairman of the State Narcotics Control Commission, declared Thursday at a press conference here. He noted the strong upward trend in the data. The total number of addicts has risen by 900% in a decade, he said.

'The gloomy prediction of our own and foreign colleagues is for Russia to have 35-37 million addicts by 2014,' he said. That prediction 'is likely to be borne out,' he said, 'if the State Narcotics Control Commission and, what is even more important, our society does not break the back of the situation and manage to impede the distribution of drugs.' He added: 'We have been in existence only six months, and our staff is only 86% in place, but we have seized more than 11 tonnes of various drugs during this period,' Mikhailov said.