Drug addiction is a terrible disease that completely destroys a person’s personality, devouring it both from the outside and from the inside. There are no borders and restrictions for drugs. Drug addiction, like a spider, drags people of any age and gender into its webs. Only isolated cases are known when it was possible to escape from this deadly captivity. However, most of them, as statistics say, lead to terrible losses.
In the last ten years, the number of people using drugs has increased by 22%. In particular, in 2020, about 275 million people used narcotic substances for non-medical purposes. About this it is said in the World Drug Report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. According to the report, more than 11 million people worldwide are injecting drug users, more than half of whom are living with hepatitis C.
In the countries of the European Union, every fourth citizen used drugs at least once in their life. Citizens of the countries of the European Union annually spend about 24 billion euros on the purchase of illegal drugs. At the same time, the prevalence of the use of narcotic and psychotropic substances in Ukraine in 2022 was 17 people per 10,000 population (the calculation was based on data from the UN Population Fund). From 2015 to 2022, this indicator tended to increase annually. According to doctors, the number of drug addicts in Ukraine reaches almost 1.5-2 million people, which is ten times higher than various official figures.
In the Kharkiv region in 2018, 2019, and 2020, there were 2,325, 2,260, and 2,022 drug addicts, respectively, in 2018, 2019, and 2020, and 1,392 drug addicts in 2022. For 2023, official indicators on this issue are not published for objective reasons. The real figures may be much higher due to a number of circumstances that may contribute to the saturation of the “black market” from illegal drug trafficking.
For data online survey conducted Institute of Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatric Examination and Drug Monitoring of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, 63.7% of respondents reported that they used drugs at least once in their life. Moreover, men are more likely to use drugs than women, as evidenced by 81.2% of men versus 50.3% of women. The age group prone to drug use is mainly people from 25 to 34 years old. Among the reasons that prompted them to use, the respondents named:
- for the sake of experiment or entertainment – people aged 25 to 34 (52.5%);
- for stress relief – people aged 35 to 44 (48.9%).
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine became an obstacle to tracking this data in the following years. And in general, it is almost impossible to trace the victims of the distribution of “black market” products.
Why drugs have gained such terrible popularity among Ukrainians
In Ukraine, drugs have two sources of origin: local production, which includes hemp, poppy and methamphetamine. The most common synthetic drugs are salt (alfa-PVP) and mephedrone, and most of the necessary components for their production can be bought legally. The second source is smuggling, which is the importation of drugs from other countries such as Colombia, Iran and Afghanistan.
Internet sales have made drugs available to absolutely everyone. Today, the World Wide Web is full of many sites that invite you to become a tester of new types of drugs or invite you to become a courier of “white death”. Since young people are active Internet users, they are the first to fall into the trap of drug dealers.
On opinion According to Dmytro Sergeyev, a representative of the International Anti-Narcotics Association, every third or fourth teenager uses a deadly poison. Moreover, the prices for it on the sites are affordable, and the speed of work of online couriers is simply amazing. Bookmarks are located in almost every corner of the city, it is enough to visit one of the online stores, place an order, pay through the terminal, and the address of the bookmark is immediately sent to the client. To become a courier, you don’t need special skills either. They are not even interested in age, only a deposit is made in the form of a symbolic amount of UAH 200-350. It is obvious that such distance trade is easily implemented, and the drug dealers themselves are not even hiding, because no one is probably looking for them.
The fight against drugs
The police say that tracking drug traffic is quite difficult. But the question arises, why such sites are not simply blocked, as in other countries? Why not block the supply and seizure of large quantities of drugs? Because it is not profitable! Neither to those who trade, nor to those who crush.
One of the obstacles to the effective fight against drug trafficking is the system of evaluating the work of law enforcement agencies of Ukraine, which is aimed at detecting a greater number of crimes, while in European countries attention is focused on the seizure of drugs. For example, German law enforcement is focused on blocking major distribution channels and arresting major drug dealers and manufacturers.
In Germany, a record 40 tons of cocaine were seized in 2023, which exceeds the figures of 2022 (20 tons) and 2021 (23 tons). Recently, in Kryvyi Rih, a large group of drug dealers called the “twenties” was detained, which became the exception, not the rule.
To improve efficiency, the system of evaluating law enforcement officers needs to be changed. The main criterion for evaluating the anti-narcotics work should be the value of seized drugs, not just their weight. For example, one gram of cannabis on the black market of Ukraine costs one dollar, and cocaine – almost $100.
It should be noted that in Ukraine procedural management of criminal cases related to the fight against drugs is carried out by prosecutors. However, in order to increase the effectiveness of investigations, it is necessary to create specialized departments of prosecutors that would deal exclusively with drug cases. They must be specialists not only in documenting the sale of drugs, but also in economic and financial schemes for the legalization of income from them. At the same time, it is important that prosecutors and law enforcement begin to pursue the money of drug dealers, since this is their main goal. By depriving them of their finances, you can destroy their structure. It is necessary to fight against the legalization of funds and seize the property of drug dealers: apartments, houses, cars.
Corruption in law enforcement and judicial bodies is a significant obstacle in the fight against drug trafficking. Although their employees conscientiously perform their duties, there are also those who cannot resist easy earnings. For example, there are cases when an operation to eliminate a drug gang is planned. After receiving the court orders, the law enforcement officers start searches, but the criminals’ phones already have copies of these orders, which were given to their fellow criminals. As a result, the criminals manage to transfer the drugs to another place and warn their accomplices.
In May 2021, the SBU revealed activities of drug gangs in Lviv Oblast. This case became notable due to the participation in criminal activities of current and former employees of the Lviv District Police Department. In addition to illegal enrichment, werewolves in epaulettes tried to raise the rating of the indicators of their official activity in this way.
Obviously, such cases are a vivid example when law enforcement agencies, instead of fighting the drug trade, become active participants in the criminal system.
In order to fight corruption, it is necessary to change the approach to the motivation of law enforcement officers. For example, 10% of the confiscated funds of drug dealers should be given to reward those who solved the crime, and a portion should be given to the technical equipment of the units.
Ukraine should apply the approaches of other countries in the fight against drug trafficking, in particular, a combination of different methods: partial legalization, expanding the powers of law enforcement officers, strengthening punishments. The issue of the legalization of certain drugs should be brought up for public discussion, and the punishment for selling drugs to children should be the most severe.
Drugs in the army
In Ukraine, there is another extremely urgent and dangerous problem that cannot be ignored – drug addiction in the army. Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andrii Kostin indicated admitted that in the ranks of the Armed Forces there are chains of supply of narcotics to the front line, but European institutions and even the FBI are helping to fight this problem. Available and cheap substances dilute the stress and sad everyday life of the military, but their effectiveness drops significantly.
The military themselves also talk about this problem in the army. For example, the officer of the 67th mechanized brigade, military psychologist Andriy Kozinchuk, said that the military, facing excessive stress, become an easy target for drug dealers. https://focus.ua/uk/eksklyuzivy/589436-narkotiki-v-lavah-zsu-velika-zarplata-i-dostupnist-rechovin-pidkupovuyut-viyskovih-eksperti
Although the management does not approve of the use of narcotic drugs, for the military, whose salaries are high, buying drugs is not a problem, because the “Novaya Poshta” points are not checked by law enforcement officers. Attention should also be paid to the fact that medical commissions do not pay due attention to identifying drug addicts. It is obvious that such a person, having joined the ranks of the Armed Forces, will strive to obtain narcotics at any cost. Such a soldier is dangerous not only for himself, but also for his comrades in arms.
Bright example sale of drugs among military personnel was revealed by employees of the State Bureau of Investigation in the Lviv region. Criminals sold narcotics to wounded soldiers under the guise of a veterans’ public organization. At the same time, illegal sales were managed by a local resident together with current and former military personnel. They also distributed drugs among the local population, which brought them a profit of UAH 600,000 per month.
It is worth noting that the legalization of medical cannabis can complicate the situation with drugs at the front. People will begin to replace the concept of the need to use the drug as prescribed by a doctor and the abuse of a narcotic substance, and this will become another loophole for drug dealers for illegal enrichment.
The rapid development of society has shown that every day there are more and more ways to get narcotics without making any special efforts. Therefore, it is important to direct the state drug policy on the right course, focusing all efforts on working with the factors that cause the risk of drug use, to introduce the necessary measures to control and prevent the distribution of narcotic drugs, to develop a system of timely diagnosis and treatment of drug addiction.
