Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
From: [n--bo--y] at [shell.portal.com]
Subject: LSD legal in Russia!
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 22:56:03 -0800
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It's a very sad day indeed, when I feel like moving to Russia! I am
still ashamed to be an American. I hope this will end soon, but if it
doesn't by the time I am financially fit enough to move out, I'm leaving
this United States of Oppression. Home of the jailed; land of the cowards.

And on this beautiful day in er... what month is it? Febuary! And on
this wonderful day, I present to you today's UPI news:

         MOSCOW (Reuter) - The deaf-mute outside Moscow's crowded
Byelorussky railway station who raises his fingers to his lips
in a ``v'' might simply be asking for a cigarette.
         But those familiar with Moscow underground life know the
real meaning.
         The station, packed day and night with commuters,
long-distance travelers, beggars and invalids, is a center of
Moscow's flourishing drugs trade. Its small group of mutes are
among the biggest dealers.
         ``Marijuana, opium, hashish -- they have anything you need
to get stoned. Prices are high, but the stuff is always
available,'' said Alexei, a 20-year-old Moscow University
student.
         Drugs were strictly forbidden in the Soviet era, when they
were described in official propaganda as a scourge of the
capitalist West. Now they are recognized as a problem in Russia.
         Officials counted 53,000 drug-related crimes in Russia in
1993, up from 29,000 in 1992 and 16,000 in 1985.
         ``Addiction disappears under totalitarian rule,'' said
Arkady Kuznetsov, head of the Interior Ministry's anti-drugs
department.
         ``Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini annihilated drug-taking by
sending all drug dealers to jail. Now it is everywhere.''
         Kuznetsov said the scale of drug abuse in Russia could not
be compared to that in the West but it was a serious problem.
         ``It's no wonder. Around 2.5 million acres of land in Russia
are covered with wild cannabis, and 2.5 acres yields around one
ton of hashish. The calculations are very simple,'' he said.
         Almost half the cannabis and opium available in Moscow comes
from the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Ukraine,
Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
         Kuznetsov said Russia was the only country in the world
where consumption of drugs -- as opposed to selling them -- was
not a criminal offense. President Boris Yeltsin lifted a ban on
drug consumption in 1991.
         A poll published two years ago by the Education Ministry
showed 1.5 million of Russia's 150 million population were
taking drugs.
         ``I do not believe these figures too much,'' Kuznetsov said.
``Two years ago people were too afraid of saying they had ever
tried the stuff. Besides, the number of addicts has grown
considerably over two years,'' he added.
         ``Moscow has become quite a cool place. Everything you ever
heard about is on sale here -- LSD, crack, heroin and even magic
mushrooms,'' said Dmitry, 26, a bearded painter.
         Opium is sold in straw form which can be boiled in acetone
to create a heroin-like substance which users inject.
         ``Russia has always been a special country and it has
specialities in the field of drug production,'' said Kuznetsov.
``The most dangerous are synthetic drugs, like
trimethylfentonil, a synthetic heroin.''
         He said many Russian chemists, unemployed or struggling to
survive on $20 per month, were involved in underground
production of synthetic drugs to make ends meet. ``Many of them
have bright brains, so they use them.''
         Synthetic heroin is called ``glass'' in street slang,
because one of its chemical components is used in armored glass.
         Kuznetsov said only two countries -- the United States and
Russia -- were producing this ``second generation'' drug.
         Five grams of ``glass,'' dissolved in two gallons of water,
is enough for 2,000 fixes.
         The Interior Ministry also has to combat Russia's new,
wealthy drug-using elite.
         ``They are mostly pop stars, people in the arts and
businessmen. They have plenty of dough but nothing to do (so
they) just look for some new entertainment,'' said Kuznetsov.