Overdoses Kill 70,000 Russians Every Year

[Rose Siding]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Some 70,000 Russians -- close to 200 people a day -- die from drug overdoses, a top official said on Friday.

The figures illustrate the shocking rate of unnatural deaths in Russia, which recorded 46,000 suicides and 36,000 murders last year.
...
High disease and crime rates and low birth rates have slashed Russia's population since the fall of the Soviet Union to less than 145 million from 152 million.

With one million users, Russia is Europe's biggest heroin market, a U.N. report said last year. Drug abuse has also propelled the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, with more than 250,000 people infected across the country, according to U.N. figures for 2003.

"The speed of the disease's spread is alarming," said Mikhailov.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=7948681

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. plus the way they smoke

Russia is on par for being as fucked up a country as we are.

I guess that's the side benefit of being a present or recent Superpower.

[Warpy]

2. Yeah, there's nothing like having your leaders tell you

that you live in the richest country in the world when you don't have enough to eat and can't afford even basic medical care.

It's a miracle that more of us aren't blotto 24/7.

[DBoon]

3. But but the free market was supposed to be good

communism bad, free market good

wasn't mass privatization supposed to unleash the forces of capitalism and result in freedom, democracy, and prosperity?

[Straight Shooter]

4. Wow. I bet Putin is real happy about Afghanistan's booming opium market.

With one million users, Russia is Europe's biggest heroin market, a U.N. report said last year. Drug abuse has also propelled the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, with more than 250,000 people infected across the country, according to U.N. figures for 2003.

Maybe he should send bush a thank-you needle and tell him to stick it.