Tajikistan Grapples With Drug Addiction

Sergei Kozlov, director of the drug addict residential treatment center "Drop-in-Center," speaks with an unidentified female drug addict in the center in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Nov. 2, 2006. Tajikistan grapples with a surge in drug addiction. Drugs from Afghanistan, where the U.N. says opium cultivation has hit record levels, now threaten to swamp Tajikistan. ( AP Photo/Sergei Grits) (Sergei Grits - AP)

The proportion of female addicts, mainly prostitutes, has soared to around 30 percent of all users, increasing the likelihood that cases of infectious diseases like AIDS will jump in coming years, said Khidirov, the health activist.

Health workers and aid groups in Dushanbe, the capital, are allowed to distribute condoms and clean needles to help prevent the spread of AIDS, Khidirov said.

But critics say the government largely neglects the treatment side of the drug fight. AIDS cases have climbed markedly the past five years and a record three dozen fatal drug overdoses were recorded last year.

Efforts to treat addiction, like methadone replacement therapy, are largely ignored.

So are residential treatment clinics like the Drop-In Center _ one of only two such places for addicts nationwide. Nine addicts, including Makhkamov, live at the small, nondescript house on Dushanbe's western outskirts, getting a free place to sleep, eat, wash clothes and receive counseling. Many others come and go sporadically.

On a recent evening, one woman slept on the floor in front of a blaring TV and under a flickering light bulb, while two other addicts, including a 42-year-old former doctor, played pingpong in the main room.

Posters in Tajik and Russian explaining how AIDS and hepatitis are contracted adorn the walls of cramped rooms where residents store their precious few belongings under narrow, uncomfortable beds.

Sergei Kozlov, the center's director, said the operation, which opened last spring, has received foreign funding of about $13,000 and nothing from the government.

"The government looks at us like 'let them do what they want so long as they don't bother us.' Tajik society isn't ready for us yet," he said.

Kozlov blamed the surge in addiction on the poor economy, which has turned drug trafficking into a semi-reliable source of income. In Dushanbe, it's almost as easy to buy drugs as it is to buy beer, he said.

"You have to fight the addiction. We have to do more, to fight it and to help (addicts)," he said. "If you leave them, they just become parasites on society."