By V. Kyucharyants, "Will the USSR Become a Market for the Drug Trade?", [Minsk, Sovetskaya Belorussiya in Russian, 1 Jun 91, p.3].

Whereas the two million Soviet people already "sitting on their suitcases" await the passing of the law on entry and departure as an opportunity to solve their problems abroad, the law enforcement agencies see in it a potential danger for a sharp jump in drug-related crimes. In the opinion of criminologists, opening the borders between East and West, so vital for creating a Europe-wide community and rule-of-law state in the USSR, will also have a negative side: The borders will be thrown open to the drug mafia as well.

Drug dealers are constantly seeking new markets and, unquestionably, would like to exploit the Soviet market. Despite all efforts, we are constantly a few steps behind the drug dealers. In the USSR this lag is small, since the problem has a lesser scope. However, the problem is most certainly global in nature, and therefore can only be solved by uniting the efforts of all countries.

Specialists from 13 countries in Europe, the United States and Canada have drafted the necessary recommendations for cooperation and unification of efforts under the new conditions taking shape in a changing Europe. Improvement of the world community requires decisive actions. The need to achieve the declassification of bank deposits abroad in certain cases was also recognized, and even Switzerland agreed that banking secrecy often serves as a stout shield for drug dealers. Remote satellite sensing will be used to reveal concealed plantations of opium and hemp in both Asia and Europe.

Although for the time being the Soviet Union has not become an active arena for the international drug mafia, due to reasons such as non-convertability of the ruble, definite restrictions on entry and departure, and the complexity of making money because of the poverty of the market, nonetheless the scale of the spread of narcotics contraband throughout the USSR is expanding. In the last five years, more than a thousand attempts to transport drug equipment and psychotropic substances were stopped at the border. The number of channels and suppliers of the "intermediate" commodity through our country is increasing. These include Afghanistan, Hungary, the PRC, Vietnam, Romania and Iran. The situation in the country itself is also changing. There is an obvious trend toward growth in drug-related crimes. Whereas it comprised 9.3 percent on 1989, it was 35.5 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. In the words of Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Vasiliy Trushin, about 30,000 such crimes are committed in the country annually and the amount of confiscated drug equipment and raw materials for their manufacture is 25-30 tons. The latency of the problem complicates estimates, but it is possible to assume that the number of people abusing narcotics is significantly higher than the officially registered number and approaches up to 1.5 million people.

Whereas even a year ago MVD specialists preferred to say that we had no united narcotics mafia, just separate groups existing in various regions of the country, today it is already obvious that the tentacles of the "octopus" grip it both from South to North as well as from East to West. The "sorest spots" are the republics of Central Asia, the Northern Caucasus and Transcaucasus, the Ukraine and the Far East, where hemp is growing in sizable territories and the population has long engaged in the cultivation on poppies.

The concentration of addicts, and hence the growth and circulation of drugs is great in large cities, international ports and resort cities. Today, specialists are noting the stable interregional ties of a domestic drug mafia.

According to expert estimates the annual turnover for drug dealers in the USSR is over 3 billion rubles. Moreover, exposing the mechanism for "laundering" the money obtained from drug trade, one of the most difficult problems encountered in all countries, is still "terra incognita" for Soviet specialists. Of course, they are familiar with the experience of foreign countries and have had certain successes in this area themselves. However, the conversion to market rations and the appearance in connection with this of thousands of the most diverse independent enterprises opens up unusually favorable "laundering" opportunities for the drug trade and, conversely, extraordinarily complicates the job of police experts.

A glance at the near future is convincing. The growing foreign trade and humanitarian ties of the USSR, the opening of the borders, and mainly, the upcoming transition to ruble convertibility will give sharp impetus to the penetration of drugs into the country and, at the same time, to their export to other countries. A supranational awareness of the danger of turning the USSR into one of the centers of the drug trade faces the law enforcement agencies with new and highly difficult tasks. The key element of international cooperation in this area, unquestionably, is the exchange of current information. The membership of the USSR in Interpol, which as of this September has opened access for Soviet specialists to the latest Western practices in the struggle against the criminal world, will play a great role here. Furthermore, in the words of V. Trushin, the USSR MVD has proposed to create a special agency to coordinate the actions of all services relating to one goal, the struggle against narcotics, under the President or under the USSR government.

"Of course, there are no universal cures," said M. Zh. Ensti. "Every society, every culture has its own specific features, yet we are seeking the possibility of general measures for adapting them. The war against drugs may turn out to be a long battle to exhaustion, despite the opinion of most people, who see only its investigative side. However, the problem is far deeper. Different laws operate here. The only law that drug dealers recognize is that of supply and demand. And the demand is growing, especially among youth. The reasons are spiritual bankruptcy, and absence of vital values, and disillusionment. Then they report to "artificial heaven." We have only recently begun to regard this aspect seriously. Meanwhile, the forecasts of experts are very pessimistic. Today, we simply must think not only of those who already need to be rescued from this evil, but also of future generation. We must give young people spiritual values.