Cheaper drugs are producing more addicts, but few in Ukraine are addressing the growing addiction problem.
A drop in prices usually accompanies a world economic crisis. The drug industry is no exception. Cheaper drugs mean greater numbers of addicts. And experts in Ukraine are warning that the consequences are becoming catastrophic.
According to a recent survey by the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, 14 percent of Ukrainians have tried marijuana by age 15. The numbers of those addicted to hard-core drugs – including heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines – are rising by some 10 percent each year, having reached an estimated 1.5 million to date, according to Anatoly Vievsky, an expert on drug addiction at the Ministry of Health. Most of these people are 15 to 30 years old.
“Drugs are becoming common consumer goods for the young Ukrainian generation. They are becoming an integral part of their lives.” said Olga Balakyreva, president of the Ukrainian Institute of Social Research.
Hank Hussman, an expert of the European Commission, said that hard drugs are cheaper than they ever have been.
To compensate for low prices, the biggest drug producers increase production, according to Bernhard Bogensperger, attache on issues of terrorism and organized crime within the European Commission Office for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. “Hence, to have the proper income, Columbian, Ecuador and Paraguay drug cartels increase the production volume producing more of drugs in order to compensate their low price,” he said. “Contrabandists adapt to the terms of world financial crisis in order to offer their dangerous product.”
Balakyreva says that price is not the only factor. “The reason lies in the social environment. Youngsters want to go with the crowd. One more reason is curiosity or boredom, the desire to feel something different.”
Igor Mykhaylov, now 47, is one of those lucky few who have managed to outlive three generations of drug addicts in his home Crimean city of Simferopol. He used drugs for 25 years, but has managed to quit. He said the first time he tried hard drugs was to “keep up’’ with his friends. “In 1984, injecting drugs was considered to be a popular and cool fad. I wanted to keep up with them, feel something new, as they were saying.” Mykhaylov said. “Today all my friends and the friends of my friends who used drugs with me are dead.”
Another ex-drug addict, Mykola Voronyak, 25, injected his first dose in a college dormitory. “I was away from my family, and my friends at the dormitory were using drugs.” Voronyak said. “I was bored and tried it because of curiosity. I thought it would be just one time. But it lasted for six years.”
The problem is much worse in some regions than others. Mykolayiv and Odesa oblasts are among the worst, with 79 and 70 addicts per 10,000 people, respectively. And the real problem is more severe, said Valery Kravchenko, a former Ukrainian State Security Service general who also serves as vice president of the public organization Parents’ Movement Against Immorality. “Out of each 10-12 drug addicts, there is only one who is registered with law-enforcement agencies.”
Each year, more than $3 billion is spent on illegal drugs in Ukraine, according to the Interior Ministry. There were some 70, 000 illegal drug distributors operating in Ukraine in 2008, according to Interpol.
Mykhaylov was one of them and served nine months in prison in 2006 for drug dealing. “I came to Kyiv for a rehabilitation program. I went through registration and that is how they caught me. Otherwise, they would be searching for me still now,” Mykhaylov said.
Kravchenko said the government should be more involved in rehabilitation of drug users.
“In Europe and the U.S., this problem is being solved by governments which do not save money on state rehabilitation centers. In Ukraine, if I am not mistaken, there are no state rehabilitation centers for drug addicts,” Kravchenko added.
He also said the Healthy Ministry understates the problem. “The ministry will not name you the real numbers of drug addicts and those who have died from it. They will tell you they died because of heart attacks, blood poisoning or whatever. But they will never tell you it was an overdose,” Kravchenko said.
In Ukraine, several Protestant churches run drug rehabilitation centers. One of them, Barnabas is located in Kyiv on 2a Mykilsko-Slobidska Street. It helped Mykhaylov and Voronyak quit their addiction. “My mother took me to Kyiv because, after rehabilitation in Lviv, I met my old friends again and went back to using drugs,” Voronyak said referring to Barnabas.
Mykhaylov, however, thought he was coming to Kyiv to die.
“My nephew, also a former drug addict, had passed through this rehabilitation and then came to me saying he wanted to help. It was free. I accepted his offer because I felt I was dying and wanted to at least die in a bed, not somewhere in the bushes.” Mykhaylov said.
Barnabas helps addicts from all over the country. It’s free for some, but charges Hr 200 for those that can pay. It uses the medication-free Norwegian system with an emphasis on spiritual and psychological rehabilitation, combined with manual labor. “We believe in [their chances to overcome addictions] and also put them to work at small farms where they can feel responsible for domestic animals. First they see that they are needed, then they establish goals,” said Serhiy Perhalsky, director of Barnabas.
There are two such farms located 100 kilometers from Kyiv. In the village of Sloboda, drug addicts raise pigs and build pigsties, while in Zhmeyivka, they rear sheep and goats, as well as pigs. Voronyak, who has lived and worked in Zhmeyivka for two years, says he is proud of his work and his flock of sheep. He does not want to go back to city life, despite having a university degree as an interpreter.
“When I lived in Lviv, I had no idea I would love to work on the land. Besides, I feel that I can help other drug addict. I feel they need me. I get them to see that God gave them a second chance. I help them create a new system of spiritual values where there is no place for drugs.”
Meanwhile, Mykhaylov is ready to move on. “I have changed. I will be working in a hotel as a logistics manager,” he said. He feels he has become more responsible now, and it was the pigs that helped him become that way. “The pigs…became my friends and a part of my family. I want to take some of them from Sloboda village with me. They will not let me go back to my past.”
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