(22 Jul 1995) Russian/Nat
Police in one of Russia's poorest republics, Tajikistan, think the country may well rival Colombia when it comes to the supply of drugs.
Since the break up of the Soviet Union, some of Tajikistan's poorest inhabitants have started growing opium and hemp.
Despite their efforts, police have had little effect in stopping the trade.
This is the market of the town of Penjikent in northern Tajikistan.
The town's 14-thousand inhabitants live well below the poverty line.
The breakup of the Soviet Union and Civil War have left Tajikistan as the poorest of all the former Soviet republics. There's little or no industry to speak of. One of the only means of survival is growing fruit on tiny parcels of land.
Or growing something else.
But for the last seven or eight years, some have been growing opium and hemp.
Tajikistan authorities are so concerned about the spread of drugs throughout the country that they have started house-to-house searches.
In this house they found raw opium as well as hemp. The owner of the house claims it was for medicinal use for his sick father but it's more likely he was selling it- to buy food for his large family.
The police sympathize with the economic plight of their own people but have to punish them.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"I feel sorry for them of course, but what can I do? The law is the law and if we don't take any measures then they'll go on doing it. If they don't think what kind of harm this can do to their own people, and not only them but outside the republic, we have to take measures."
SUPER CAPTION:Inspector Mustafa Karimov, Penjikent Police Department
Tajikistan already supplies Russia with over half its drugs- the authorities are convinced the country could well become the next Colombia.
SOUNDBITE: (Russia)
"Of course it will spread. If we don't take any measures, if we don't punish them then others will see this and the whole thing will just grow and grow."
SUPER CAPTION: Inspector Mustafa Karimov, Penjikent Police Department
At Penjikent's mosque, the town's elders are concerned about the increasing use of drugs by the young.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"I think that after the breakup of the Union our Tajikistan fell into a crisis, everything here was bad and the people started to do this. But you have to understand, there was not enough money, they didn't have enough bread, the majority are forced to do this now."
SUPER CAPTION: Ikhmal Al-Hatur, Penjikent Mufti
At the border- police are vigilant, trying to stem the flow of drugs out of the country. But with a kilogram of raw opium fetching up 10 thousand dollars in Russia's big cities, they admit they are fighting an uphill battle against the well-equipped drug barons
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"They know all the routes. They have had good training. They are making millions of dollars."
SUPER CAPTION:Inspector Abdurakhmar Zaklinoyev, border police
With only one helicopter, the authorities are in no position to combat the growing drug trade in the country.
And with little hope of economic recovery, the Tajikistani people will continue to see drugs as their only way to survive.
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