Anti-drug agencies’ representatives from Russia and USA met at the Presidential Library

24 May 2012 the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library hosted the sixth meeting of the Working group on counteraction against the illegal drug trade, created within the bilateral Russian-American presidential committee. The participants of the meeting discussed problems of joint struggle with the global drug threat.

The meeting was opened by co-presidents of the Working group: V. P. Ivanov, president of the State Anti-Drug Committee, director of the Federal Drug Control Service and G. Kerlikovski, director of the Drugs Control State Policy Department under the US President Administration.

As noted V. P. Ivanov, the Russian-American cooperation is regular and of a high level. He underlined that the two parties have established an efficient exchange of information.

The meeting heard reports on major activities of the working group. The main topics of discussion were the issues of treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts, improvement of the Russian and American anti-drug legislation, activities intended to reduce demand for drugs.

At the press conference held after the meeting the co-presidents of the working group told about the progress and future plans for joint activities. As it turned out, the experts of both countries devote much attention to the fight against drugs’ distribution through the Internet. As underlined the director of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, about a thousand sites, through which drugs had been distributed, were dismantled last year.

According to Mr. Kerlikovski, the United States is beginning to solve this problem at the level of legislation, in particular, there is a law limiting the sale of medicines containing narcotic substances, through the Global Network. As was noted at the press conference, our country is also working to fight with medicinal narcomania. For example, according to the decree of the Russian Government, beginning from June 1, 2012 Russian pharmacies will sell medicines containing codeine only to those having a prescription.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, the Health Ministry of Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation, along with the Drugs Control State Policy Department under the US President Administration, the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Public Health Service.

The Working Group was established in July 2009. Its work covers a wide range of issues to combat the illegal drug trade. The next meeting of Russian and American colleagues, is scheduled for the second half of the year.

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