NCJ Number
138019
Journal
Crime, Law and Social Change Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Dated: (May 1992) Pages: 177-233
Date Published
1992
Length
57 pages
Annotation
Based primarily on Soviet studies, this article assesses the dimensions and dynamics of the Soviet illicit drug trade and analyzes trends in the Soviet drug market, the roles and capabilities of various Soviet bureaucratic actors in battling the drug trade, and future prospects for narcotics control in the former Soviet Union; the report also outlines the opportunities for U.S.-Soviet cooperation in the narcotics field.
Abstract
The demise of communism and the disintegration of the Soviet state along with the emergence of Westernization and internal economic reform has created fertile soil for the growth of drug abuse and drug trafficking in the former USSR. Rates of drug abuse have increased since the mid-1980's, especially in the European parts of the former USSR. Also, organized interregional drug mafias have emerged to serve this rapidly expanding market. The former USSR does not now participate significantly in the international narcotics market as a consumer or supplier of illicit substances; however, this pattern of relative self-sufficiency could change in the 1990's. Convertability of the ruble could result in a large flow of Western hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin, or crack into European Russia. A rapid expansion of trade, travel, and economic ties with Western countries will widen the pipeline for the movement of drugs. Moscow's weakening hold over the former Soviet Central Asian republics and Central Asia's generally bleak economic prospects coexist with an apparent massive expansion of drug crop cultivation in that region. If current trends continue, former Soviet Central Asia could become a significant world supplier of hashish and opium products during the 1990's. 11 tables, 62 notes and a 288-item bibliography