The program of methadone maintenance for heroin addicts in Crimea will be phased out, Russian Federal Drug Control Service chief Viktor Ivanov said on Wednesday.
“Crimea has become a region of Russia. All laws of the Russian Federation now apply to it. Methadone is considered a drug in Russia,” Ivanov said.
Methadone maintenance for heroin addicts is legal in Ukraine, while it is prohibited in Russia. Some international non-governmental organizations called on Russia last year to legalize methadone therapy for drug addicts.
Ivanov hosted a conference in Simferopol dealing with the countering of drug trafficking in Crimea on Wednesday.
The handover of methadone currently stored at legal drug detoxification institutions in Crimea is under consideration now, Ivanov said. “This is 50 to 80 kilos. Inventorying is now under way for this methadone to be duly handed over,” he said.
“It is the job of drug policemen to expose the criminals dealing this drug,” Ivanov said.
The Federal Drug Control Service had told Interfax earlier that 1.5 million out of the 8 million officially registered drug addicts in Russia are addicted to heroin and that about 70,000 young people die of drugs in Russia annually.
