Region: Drug use spikes in Ukraine

By Iryna Prymachyk

From the Kyiv Post

Cheaper drugs are producing more addicts, but few in Ukraine are addressing the growing problem.

Price drops usually accompany economic crisis. The drug industry is no exception. Cheaper drugs mean more addicts. 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 drugs - including heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines - are rising some 10 percent each year, having reached an estimated 1.5 million, according to Anatoly Vievsky, an expert on drug addiction at the Health Ministry. 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, a drug expert for the European Commission, said hard drugs are cheaper than ever.

To compensate for low prices, drug producers increase production, says Bernhard Bogensperger, attaché on terrorism and organized crime for the European Commission Office for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.

"Hence, to have the proper income, Colombian, Ecuadorian and Paraguayan drug cartels increase the production volume, producing more drugs in order to compensate for their low price," he said.

Balakyreva said 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 managed to outlive three generations of drug addicts in his home Crimean city of Simferopol. He used drugs for 25 years, but has quit. He said the first time he tried hard drugs was to "keep up'' with his friends.

"In 1984, injecting drugs was considered 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 former 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 thought it would be just one time. But it lasted for six years."

The Mykolayiv and Odessa regions are among the worst hit, 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 serves as vice president of the Parents' Movement Against Immorality.

"Out of each 10-12 drug addicts, there is only one who is registered with law-enforcement agencies," she said.

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. "I came to Kyiv for a rehabilitation program. I went through registration, and that is how they caught me," Mykhaylov said.

Kravchenko said the government should be more involved in the rehabilitation of drug users.

"In Europe and the United States, this problem is solved by government spending on state rehabilitation centers. In Ukraine, if I am not mistaken, there are no state rehabilitation centers for drug addicts," Kravchenko added.

Promoting rehab

"The ministry will not tell you the real numbers of drug addicts or of those who have died. 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 rehabilitation centers. One of them is Barnabas, in Kyiv, which helped Mykhaylov and Voronyak quit their addiction.

"My mother took me to [Barnabas in] Kyiv because, after rehabilitation in Lviv, I met my old friends again and went back to using drugs," Voronyak said.

Mykhaylov 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 200 hryvnia for those who can pay. It uses a medication-free Norwegian system emphasizing 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 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, goats and 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 a university degree as an interpreter.

"I had no idea I would love to work on the land. Besides, I feel I can help other drug addicts. I feel they need me. I get them to see that God has given them a second chance. I help them create a new system of spiritual values where there is no place for drugs," Voronyak said.  

Meanwhile, Mykhaylov is ready to move on.

"I have changed. I will be working in a hotel as a logistics manager," he said. "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."

Iryna Prymachyk can be reached at prymachyk@kyivpost.com