In the third of a series on drugs in Russia's regions, Oleg Pavlov reports from the Republic of Tatarstan, 400 miles east of Moscow. While the situation there is certainly not as desperate as it was ten years ago, even government officials suggest as many as 2% of the population are addicted.
The once closed debate on drugs policy shows signs of opening up. But liberalisation would require the international restrictions on narcotics which do untold harm to the developing world to be relaxed
Criminalisation of narcotics has little impact on consumption but creates a criminal class and a professional lobby of law-enforcers. Shaw describes this process from the inside.
How can we grow intelligent government, allowing the open input of unelected specialists, and what wuld an effective drugs policy be?
