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Russia's new wave drug addicts disconcert old guard
SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia, Oct 25 (AFP) - A new generation of drug addicts has appeared in Russia whose youth, aggressiveness and apparent lack of a sense of self-preservation have surprised older generations of drug users as much as the police.
"We were a lot more adult, and were well aware of the dangers involved in madly increasing our doses," said Alexander, a 47-year-old former philologist who has been taking drugs for three decades.
A veteran of the era of Soviet repression, Alexander sees a huge gulf in attitude between his generation and today's drug addicts.
"We used to pay attention to the quality of what we were using. But nowadays the market is flooded with heroin that kills within two to three years," he said.
"I used to take breaks from time to time to allow my body to recover. But young people nowadays step up their doses without any thought for the consequences," he observed, sounding almost shocked as he remembered seeing an addict aged only seven.
Ivan Sergeyev, of Saint Petersburg's drugs squad, noted that the average age of Russian drugs users has plummeted since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
"A 14-year-old addict was very much the exception during the Soviet era. In those days it was pretty well impossible to obtain drugs at school, while today it's almost normal," he said.
A gramme of heroin in Russia's second city costs around 1,000 rubles, or 33 dollars.
"Twenty years ago all the drugs users knew each other and there were relatively few dealers, whereas now in virtually every apartment block there are two are three apartments where you can go to obtain dope," Alexander said.
Alexander himself has become a dealer, to pay for his habit and that of his wife Galina.
He sells only to people he knows well, and who know his apartment in the east of the city, and obtains his supplies from other dealers he has known for years.
The number of drug addicts in Saint Petersburg has increased by 58 percent in the past three years, according to official figures.
These are not particularly reliable, however, recording just over 8,000 addicts whereas the real figure is believed to be closer to 500,000.
"We have around 1,000 addicts in hospital, including some aged only 12 or 13, being treated for illness related to drug abuse, including hepatitis and AIDS," said Sergei Tikhomirov, head of the city's drugs rehabilitation department.
Saint Petersburg lies on one of the main routes for drugs emanating from Central Asia, particularly from Afghanistan transiting via Tajikistan, heading for western Europe.
Russia now has some three million drug addicts consuming more than a billion dollars worth of illicit drugs every year, Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said last week.
Nearly 300 tonnes of drugs arrive in Russia from Afghanistan every year, with only five percent intercepted at the Russian border, he said.
The cash for drug-addiction prevention programmes has practically dried up in recent years, while a total of 46 million dollars allocated for that purpose in 2002-2004 is "clearly insufficient," the minister said.
The result has been a sharp increase in drugs-related violence as young people resort to any means available to pay for their habit, Sergeyev noted.
"They're capable of attacking the old and infirm or even small children for and handful of rubles," he said.
Alexander recalled an earlier generation: "We had certain principles. We would never attack children or betray friends to the police. Nowadays they have no principles at all," he sniffed.
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