WORLD : Soviets Drug-Use Figure Leaps
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From Times Wire Services
MOSCOW — A deputy interior minister revealed today that more than 1.5 million Soviets use illegal drugs, a figure nearly five times higher than previous official statistics on drug abuse.
The sale of illegal drugs, mostly marijuana and hashish, also contributes $1.8 billion a year to the Soviet Union’s flourishing underground economy, Sergeyev Troshin said on the first day of a conference of heads of European anti-drug agencies.
He said the problem will worsen as the Soviet Union loosens border restrictions and increases contacts with the West.
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