Vladimir Putin: Survival Of The Nation Depends On Success Of The Drug Control Effort

Vladimir Putin thinks "survival of the nation" depends on the success of the country's drug control effort. Addressing an enlarged interior ministry board on Tuesday, the president stressed that Russia "has become the target of a full-scale attack on the part of the international drug business." The president reported that the government was contemplating setting up a federal drug control agency. What the country badly needs today is "a concentrated effort to liquidate the shadow economy based on the drug business," he emphasized. It is equally important to develop a "system of preventive and rehabilitative measures for persons suffering from drug addiction," noted Putin, pointing out that repression of drug addicts has long proved totally ineffective.