Medvedev to hold State Council meeting on youth drug addiction.

IRKUTSK (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
will chair a meeting of the State Council presidium devoted to tougher
measures against the drug addiction among young people in Irkutsk on
Monday. The president arrived in Irkutsk from China on Sunday.
High on the agenda of Medvedev's working trip to the Siberian Federal
District is a visit to the Volya (Willpower) center of preventive measures
and rehabilitation of drug addicts. This is the only state-run
organization in the Irkutsk Region that provides socio-pedagogical
rehabilitation services against all kinds of addiction.
The center works since 2001 with young people from 18 to 35 years as
most patients. About 90 drug addicts are being treated at the center. A
treatment course in the center lasts from 12 to 14 months and the major
rehabilitation method is a labour therapy.
Medvedev will also visit the children and youth sport school Atlanty,
which does not only trains athletes, but also provides rehabilitation
courses for disabled children.
The chief of the State Council working group and Governor of the
Irkutsk Region Dmitry Mezentsev and the chairman of the State Anti-Drug
Committee and the director of the Russian drug watchdog Viktor Ivanov will
deliver reports at a meeting of the State Council presidium that will be
devoted to the struggle against drug addiction among young people.
The State Council working group includes officials from the executive
authorities, the chief executives from several regions, officials from the
presidential executive office, lawmakers and experts. The working group
has made up a report on tougher measures against drug addiction among
young people.
The report noted that the real number of drug addicts in Russia makes
about 2-2.5 million people or about two percent of country's population,
mainly young people. The experts from the working group estimated that the
annual economic damages from the spread of drug addiction in Russia makes
about one trillion roubles or more than two percent of GDP.
The State Council working group offers to develop regional programs
for social rehabilitation of drug addicts, who passed a treatment course,
the state support to the organizations, which are engaged in the drug
addiction prevention, the upbringing and rehabilitation of drug addicts.
Experts also believe that the criminal responsibility should be made
tougher for inciting underage children in drug addiction and for
masterminding and keeping drug houses.
The working group believes that "the drug addiction situation can be
given an unbiased assessment if drug use tests are introduced among the
students and the personnel of the production enterprises with a high
man-made disaster hazard during regular medical examinations."