The Drug Situation in Russia and Other CIS States: challenges facing NGOs and self-help movements in the former Soviet Union

Abstract

The abuse of illicit drugs is nothing new to the former states that were part of the Soviet Union. However, until recently drug abuse has not been so widespread, being mainly limited for the traditional home market in the Central Asian Republics. The reasons for this general restriction of availability has been due to deterring factors, such as the ’cold war‘, ideological indoctrination of the population and tough societal controls. A patriarchal family and community style of living also contained the locally produced crops within the Central Asian Republics without spreading too much into other parts of the Soviet union. The first indications of an escalation came about during the 1960s. This was followed by Soviet youth adopting ’fashionable’ Western styles, including a cultural drug wave. There then followed the devastating effects of the Afghan war, which reverberated around the former USSR, with a subsequent increase in drug abuse. Over a 10 year period, the Afghan war cost the nation over 14,000 young lives, bringing injury and scars to thousands more. In particular, many of the Afghan war veterans developed drug dependency patterns, as a means of alleviating their painful physical and psychological sufferings. This had a ’domino’ effect when the soldiers returned home from the war, leading to a further, and even greater surge in drug abuse during the 1980s. In this period, the number of drug abusers grew during 1982 in comparison with 1980 by 32%. In 1983 the increase was 84% and by 1985 it had increased by a further 177%. However, the ‘Afghan’ factor alone cannot account for this sharp increase. It is now a well-known fact that the abysmal anti-alcohol campaign, pushed through by the state, had a reverse effect. By substantially limiting the availability