20 % of Drug Addicts in the rf Are Children Under 13 Years of Age

Drug addiction in russia is becoming a systemic social crisis. There are more than six million drug addicts in the country, 60 % of whom are young people aged 16–30, and 20 % are schoolchildren aged 9–13. More than 18 million russians periodically use drugs or have experience of using them.

The Khabarovsk Territory tops the anti-rating of regions with the highest level of first-time diagnosed “drug addiction” – 19.6 cases per 100,000 population. It is followed by Novosibirsk region (18.4), Sverdlovsk region (17.7), the Krasnoyarsk Territory (16.5), and Sakhalin region (15.7). The top ten also include Ryazan, Novgorod, the Altai Territory, and the Jewish Autonomous region. The only regions without new cases were the Nenets and Chukotka Autonomous Okrugs, although the latter leads in terms of the number of people with HIV and alcoholism.

As of 2024, there are 378,000 officially registered patients in russia with mental and behavioral disorders related to drug use. Of these, 223,100 have been diagnosed with “drug addiction” and another 154,800 with “harmful use”. Every day, 250 new patients are diagnosed with addiction, and about 80 people die daily from overdose or related diseases.

Against the background of economic instability, demographic decline, and increasing repression, drug addiction in russia is becoming a multi-level threat – from health care to security. At the same time, government policy is showing a weak response: prevention programs are being cut back, while social stigmatization only exacerbates the problem.