Russia is in the process of drawing up new laws to wage what Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of the Russian state duma, calls "a total war on drugs", forcing drug addicts into treatment or jail and drug dealers to face punishments on a par with serial killers.
Estimates suggest that as many as 1 in 25 Russians are addicted to drugs, exacting a high economic toll. Injecting drug use is blamed fuelling Russia's HIV crisis, with 1 in 100 Russians believed to be HIV positive. The virus can be transmitted through the sharing of used needles.
Russia is determinedly ploughing its own furrow on tackling drug use. It has rejected the calls of advocates to shift away from criminalising drug users. It also declines to implement proven interventions that lessen the risk of HIV transmission such as substitution therapy and harm reduction strategies. These include methadone programmes and needle exchange.
Read more about how drug use is linked with HIV.
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