The heroin epidemic advancing on Russia

BBC ^ | Apr 3, 2010 | Rupert Wingfield-Hayes

[decimon]

Since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, opium production in Afghanistan has risen dramatically. Russia's geographic proximity to the region has made it a huge consumer - sending thousands of Russians to an early grave every year.

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Alcohol is by far the biggest killer. More than half a million Russians drink themselves to death every year.

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Actually there are two of them, one closely stalking the other. The first is heroin. The second is HIV.

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In the US, there are around 800,000 heroin addicts. In the UK, between 200,000 and 300,000.

In Russia, there are now two and a half million.

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[jessduntno]

Coming soon to a country near you...the opiate of the masses will be THE opiate of the masses.

[mlocher]

Since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, opium production in Afghanistan has risen dramatically. Russia's geographic proximity to the region has made it a huge consumer - sending thousands of Russians to an early grave every year.

Putin has no real power in Russia. Half of the people will stand up to him. The other half are too stoned to follow him.

[wolfcreek]

Comfortably Numb

[wolfcreek]

In a lot of cases, one this side of the world or the other, it comes down to eking out a living. These farmer have grown and sometimes used these products for centuries.

It's the people who buy from the farmers and encourage them to grow more that are the most evil.

They grow food too.

[Hot Tabasco]

Is that the only thing that will grow in that country? How about food?

One could argue that along with waging war in Afghanistan, we could at least make peace with the opium farmers by paying them not to grow like we do our own farmers.........

[Glenn]

I've never had Heroin, but I hear it is quite the compelling drug. I also hear there is a cure that is exact.

[wolfcreek]

I think, with the right guidance, they could grow a number of thing well.

Like marijuana for hashish. (which they've done for ages)

But, yeah, they're just being good capitalists, growing their best crop for the buck.

Do I think the farmers realize the extent of what happens with their product? I doubt they know or care.

[corkoman]

Alcohol is by far the biggest killer. More than half a million Russians drink themselves to death every year. > Actually there are two of them, one closely stalking the other. The first is heroin. The second is HIV.

Notice no real stats on the number of opiate-caused deaths. Half a million alcohol deaths, how many heroin overdose deaths?

[LadyDoc]

the heroin deaths are not all overdoses...

heroin ruins the lives of those who use it and their families.

and the HIV epidemic in Russia and Asia (i.e. China) is related to heroin, not gay sex...

and did you know that Iran has two million heroin users?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

It’s a very intense high. You know that feeling you get during sex right before climax. It’s a 1,000 times that.

[olrtex]

Heroin is not a killer that is stalking the land. When someone slits their throat with a butcher knife, no one says the knife is a killer stalking the land. Heroin users know the risk. Yes, they may have the same disease that true alcoholics have; but still, they know the risk. They are all God’s children, but there is a limit to how much stories like this should tug at our heart strings.

[j-damn]

*Yes, they may have the same disease that true alcoholics have; but still, they know the risk.*

Yeah, if that ‘disease’ is called sh*tty judgment and no willpower whatsoever.

Russia needs a Stalin to come back and throw all these idiots into Gulag. Then we’ll see how much heroin you can snort/inject, Ivan.