Drug abuse becomes serious problem in Chechnya

Chechnya's governmental Anti-Drug Commission held a meeting in Grozny yesterday.

Rudnik Dudayev, Chairman of the republican Security Council, said at the meeting the situation with the circulation and use of drugs in Chechnya was acquiring "disastrous dimensions," a member of the governmental staff told Caucasian Knot. Those present expressed serious concerns that most drug users were young people or adolescents, while women and girls were increasingly often drawn into the delivery and sale of drugs in the republic.

There are 1,645 officially registered drug users in Chechnya, but the actual numbers of people who use drugs are 10-12 times higher. These figures were given at the meeting by Ibrahim Nuradiyev, chief of the Department of the Federal Service for Control of the Circulation of Drugs on Chechnya, says RIA Novosti.

The percentage of HIV infected persons is growing along with the growing numbers of drug users, according to Nuradiyev. There are 505 registered cases of AIDS in Chechnya and most of the ill persons were infected while injecting drugs, Nuradiyev said.

He noted no work on the primary prevention of drug abuse was conducted in Chechnya. All treatment and rehabilitation work is actually carried out with respect to persistent drug users, he said.

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