Drugs are not expensive in Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan it is easy to buy different kinds of illegal drugs. It is possible on the "black" drug market. It is only necessary to find experienced people, people who use "light" and "hard" drugs. They can give advice on how to find drug traffickers and how to buy what you want from them.

The drug sale process in Almaty is very simple. The potential buyer approaches the drug seller with caution, this is necessary because there are often police raids on the drug seller houses. The drug seller is called out by a whistle or by a car signal. Every client has his own whistle or call sign. The owner comes out and asks what you need and then brings the drug out. It appears to everybody else that the two people are just friends talking to each other. The seller passes the goods softly, and the deal is done.

Drug prices are different. In Kazakhstan heroin, cannabis, opium are the most popular drugs. Cocaine is very expensive and therefore it is not sold very well. One gram of cocaine costs nearly USD 50. A matchbox size of cannabis comes to 500 tenge. Heroin with the weight 0.01 gram costs 1000 -1500 tenge. One ecstasy pill in a nightclub comes to between USD 20-30.

In compliance with Kazakhstan law possessing and the traffic and sale of drugs is crime. According to the law a person can be imprisoned for between one and seven years. If it is an organized company of drug trafficking, they can be locked up for between seven and fifteen years with confiscation of property. But sometimes sellers and drug traffickers help the police. If he actively helps to arrest other drug traffickers he will be free from responsibility.

According to criminal code of Kazakhstan a large consignment of narcotics consist of 10 - 1000 grams of dried cannabis or 1000-5000 grams of undried. 0.5 -1grams of opium and 0.01 - 1 grams of heroin and cocaine and 0.2 - 3 gram of ecstasy. If the quantity is less it will be only administrative punishment and the police will just impose a fine.

The average drug dealer is somebody in their 30s and 40s, most of all them are married and have children. And it is also their second job, they also work in other places. "We just get a too small salary, and it is not enough to feed our families. Therefore we sell drugs, but at home nobody knows about it", said Sergey, one of drug dealers.

The deliveries come from the South of Kazakhstan. Most of all drugs come from Chu Valley and from Jambul. It is not rare when drugs come from other states of Central Asia, like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan. Kazakhstan is on the traffic route for narcotic dealers. Through Kazakhstan drug traffickers send narcotics to Russia, and then to other European countries. The delivery methods are different and inventive. Sometimes police finds them in clothes, but usually the drugs are hidden in their own cars.

The quantities of smuggled cannabis and other kinds of narcotics often reach tons. Cannabis is either dried up or will be dried up at the place of sale. There are a lot of cases when hard kinds of drugs have been discovered in the stomach and in other bodily organs. Most people who transport drugs are mediators between a drug supplier and a recipient. The suppliers find poor people, suggest them to transport drugs and pay them money. Their 'salary' depends on the amount of the 'goods' they carry. Sometimes it reaches thousands of dollars. That is why it is hard for police to catch organized drug trafficking gangs. They do not transport narcotics themselves. And other traffickers are called to account.

In the last seven years Kazakhstan has confiscated 100 tons of drugs. It is a very small figure, because more drugs reach their destination.

Drugs are used by people of different ages. "Children as young as 13 want to relax with drugs, others are drug addicts who physically depend on them. Often we sell drugs to older people, up to 40 years old," explains Sergey.

In Kazakhstan people who regularly smoke cannabis are not drug addicts. Half of all young people have tried it or smoke it constantly. And the people who use drugs are not called to account. They are treated as sick and they can receive medical treatment in special hospitals for drug addicts.

Is it possible, that drug legalization will be accepted by government? Young people's opinions are divided. Some of them think it is necessary. "If drugs are legalized it removes some of the attraction of using a banned substance. And narcotics don't interest our youth so much. Also the government can add some money to their budget because drugs sold in Kazakhstan would make the legalization useful for the government. Also a certain percentage of young people who are in prison, because of the sale of 'light' drugs and drug use, will go out," young people said. "I do not want my children to freely buy any kinds of narcotics even the light ones. Sometimes light drugs can lead to hard drugs," others said.

Specialists say there will be no legalization in Kazakhstan. They are not going to allow it. "We can't divide narcotics into light and hard. Because in the course of time people, who use light drugs, become drug addicts too, maybe not all of them, but some. But if Kazakhstan legalized the sale of drugs the number of people, who use drugs, would increase, and as a consequence of it the percentage of drug addicts would rise too," said Lidiya Golovina, manager of consulting department of Drug Abuse Clinic in Almaty.

Young people, old people and children are all being treated in the clinic, but it is too hard to control the quantity of drug addicts among children, because doctors can't treat such children without a parent's agreement. It is forbidden by the law. And their relatives are scared that their children will be registered as drug addicts and doctors will tell schools about it. Therefore younger drug addicts are not treated in time. "In Kazakhstan treatment is passed anonymous, even in government clinics. There are special departments for children's rehabilitation," says Doctor Golovina.

Drug addicts can receive medical treatment by their own wish or compulsorily, by the statement of their relatives. In the Drug Abuse Clinic of Almaty the treatment services are gratuitous. Government assigns nearly 26,000 tenge per month for one course of a drug addict's treatment. This money provides food, medicine and service for the drug addict.

Despite this the percentage of completely recovered drug addicts decreases every year. Also there are problems with private drug abuse clinics. The course of treatment in such clinic reaches USD 5,000 for 45 days. "They take only money, and their treatment is not effective. They have no condition for rehabilitation, which must last for years. Drug addicts after such treatment return again to drugs. Or anyway they will come to us with pain and quarry," said doctor Lidiya Golovina.

That is why the number of drug addicts is increasing.