Translated material
Cherkesov's calculation
The first meeting of the State Anti-Drug Committee took place
The first meeting of the State Anti-Drug Committee (SAK) , an interdepartmental coordinating body created in October last year , took place in Moscow yesterday under the chairmanship of FSKN Director Viktor Cherkesov. In terms of its powers and tasks, the SAC is almost absolutely identical to the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC), created two years ago - it is authorized to prepare proposals for the formation of state policy, develop appropriate measures and coordinate the work of all federal departments and regional authorities, but only in the field of combating with terrorism, but with drugs.The first meeting of the new committee was attended by the Minister of Health and Social Development Tatyana Golikova, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Rashid Nurgaliev, the Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko, the Minister of Transport Igor Levitin, the director of the Federal Migration Service Konstantin Romodanovsky and other responsible persons. Naturally, it was devoted to organizational issues - the creation of a committee apparatus and the development of a work plan for 2008. “The strategy for combating drug crime is changing radically,” Mr. Cherkesov explained the nature of the upcoming work. “The country’s law enforcement system has been reoriented to move from prosecuting drug users for committing minor crimes to suppressing organized crime, which controls drug trafficking, large distribution networks, and legalizes proceeds from the drug business.”
Opening the meeting, the head of the Federal Drug Control Service assessed the situation with the state's counteraction to the drug problem quite positively. At the same time, it was obviously not by chance that he operated mainly with comparative data for the last 3-5 years.
This was not said out loud, but, of course, it was understood that positive trends in the fight against drug trafficking began only after the creation of the Federal Drug Control Service, which was formed on the basis of the abolished tax police in 2003.
“Now there is reason to believe that to a certain extent it has been possible to stabilize the drug situation in the country,” Mr. Cherkesov said. -- A significant reduction in the level of drug addiction among the population, primarily among young people, has been ensured, as evidenced by the results of all-Russian monitoring. The number of people who use drugs non-medically has decreased by 800 thousand people compared to 2004 and today amounts to 5 million 100 thousand people. If in the period from 1991 to 1996 the annual increase in the number of drug addicts in Russia averaged 21%, from 1997 to 2002 - 26%, then in the last four years - only 0.5%. That dramatic situation of the increase in the number of drug addicts in Russia has been pushed aside to a large extent.”
In addition, Mr. Cherkesov said that anti-drug measures had contributed to a decrease in supply on the illicit market. “Their cost in Russia has increased two to three times on average over the past three years, which has significantly limited the availability of drugs for consumers. In some regions, a phenomenon called ‘heroin hunger’ has emerged,” said the head of the Federal Drug Control Service.
Mr. Cherkesov’s “calculation”, announced at a meeting of the State Commission, meanwhile, caused bewilderment among some experts, including lawyers and human rights activists. Thus, they were surprised by the accuracy of the figures given - both of people using drugs in Russia and their reduction. After all, drug crime is a deeply latent phenomenon (hidden from official records), and experts only wondered where Mr. Cherkesov could get such figures from. In addition, it remains unclear why the number of citizens using drugs has decreased by almost a million, although, as follows from the words of the same Mr. Cherkesov, their annual increase, although it has slowed down, still remains. In addition, statistics from other departments show that the situation remains tense - for example, deaths from drug use continue to rise. Some operatives were surprised by the data on rising drug prices - they had not observed anything like that.
Also at the meeting of the State Attestation Committee, Mr. Cherkesov considered it necessary to personally provide explanations regarding the government decree published last week (it was adopted at the initiative of the Federal Drug Control Service) on the approval of lists of potent substances, the illegal sale of which now falls under Art. 234 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. As Vremya Novostey has already reported, this list includes a number of substances that are part of common medications, such as Corvalol, Valocordin, Pentalgin, etc. Since the rules for the legal circulation of potent substances are not defined by law, pharmacists were afraid that they might be held accountable under the ill-fated Art. 234 CC. As a result, in many regions, pharmacies decided on Monday to sell these drugs only by prescription, which caused a stir among ordinary citizens, primarily pensioners, who began to purchase them “in reserve.”
Mr. Cherkesov expressed the opinion that it was not the initiators and developers of the ill-fated resolution (that is, his subordinates and government officials) who were to blame for the current situation, but someone else. “Once again I want to confirm that the government resolution does not in any way affect this area,” the head of the Federal Drug Control Service emphasized. -- As before, medications for the treatment of heart disease will be available without prescriptions. Errors often occur when interpreting laws due to a lack of information support. In particular, due to a misunderstanding and misinterpretation by officials of a recently adopted government resolution, an unjustified wave of hype around several drugs was caused.”