Rehab or jail: Drug-addicts to have choice

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Published time: November 22, 2012 10:38
Edited time: November 23, 2012 01:52

Rehabilitation Center (RIA Novosti / Pavel Lysizin)

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Crime, Drugs, Health, Law, Politics, Russia

The Russian Drugs Watchdog is developing a program for those who are arrested after being found high on narcotics. The offenders will be able to choose between custody and treatment at a detox center.

A bill will be submitted to the State Duma next year, says Viktor Ivanov, the head of the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN).

Prosecution of individuals who appear in public while being intoxicated is common in Europe and the US, the anti-drugs chief said. Experience shows that when an addict must decide between prison and rehabilitation, 100 per cent go for the treatment.

FSKN is currently working on a draft law that would introduce a similar practice in Russia, where the number of drug addicts has been steadily growing during the past decade. It’s estimated there are about 8.5 million drug users in the country.

The bill has yet to go through the “painful” procedure of approval by various state institutions. It may take a while since there are opponents of the initiative, Ivanov noted, as cited by Interfax.

Anti-drug activist Evgeny Roizman, the head of the City Without Drugs fund, is among those who oppose the legislation. He insists rehabilitation of drug-addicts should not be strictly regulated by law, since different methods can help to achieve positive results. Huge sums of money will be spent on the project and people in control of the finances will simply be uninterested in reducing the number of narcotic user, the activist told Izvestia daily.

If the public supports the idea, the decision may be made sooner and up to 200,000 drug users will be sent to rehabs annually, the FSKN chief said, adding that now only 20,000 get treatment.

Comments (3)

SNAFU (unregistered) 23.11.2012 06:25

Count Cash wrote in #1
I thought DRUGS R US, otherwise known as the US army were leaving Afghanistan, so the problem would go away anyway. ---I think the US is intentionally allowing a flood of heroin to Russia in order to cause as much of a drag and expense on the society as possible. In addition to that, the extra income from some trafficking is probably funding some CIA ops that can't get funding legally.

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JJ (unregistered) 23.11.2012 00:18

Legalize Drugs, the only thing you are doing is keeping the profit in it, and
keeping the crime rate up to get the drugs, when Junkies steal they will steal
from Ordinary people and the profits will wind up in Organized Crime pockets.
The more you make drugs illegal, the more profit in it and the worse the
people selling it will be, oh more murder too.
Yeah Russia you have a lot to learn about Freedom something you don't
understand, you can not control everything from drugs to being gay. Russia is
still stuck on that Joseph Stalin/Iron Curtain mentality. You can't control
everone with an IRON FIST, unless you want to be North Korea.
or the USA

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Count Cash 22.11.2012 11:19

I thought DRUGS R US, otherwise known as the US army were leaving Afghanistan, so the problem would go away anyway.

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