Russia’s war on drugs

FULL ARTICLE bit.ly There are tens of thousands of drug-related deaths in Russia each year. This year, Russia became the biggest consumer of heroin in the world. Almost 70 tons of it seeps across the Afghan border to Central Asia. And than its poisonous river makes its way across Siberia, to the Russian Capital — here to Moscow – and than runs further to the most remote Russian provinces and villages. Just last month, the head of this ministry — the ministry of drug control — Igor Ivanov realized he couldn’t do much about the traffic here at home. So he packed up, gathered his team and flew to Afghanistan. The country is exhausted after 30 years of nonstop war. People there live on pennies, children play with rocks — the only source of money for many people is poppies. Russia’s plan was to persuade NATO to cut down heroine production by spraying the poppie fields. Not all of these plans worked out.