russia

It's been said before - and it still holds - "right product at the time". Here's some more evidence of that.
We know that 3 months ago, SBN was in advanced stage negotiations with Russia agents for the distribution of SBN products in Russia and eastern Europe. Those negotiations are presumably even more advanced now.

Nice timing - given this news yesterday out of the TASS news agency. Would be nice to see a roll out of product in Russia at the same time that China is ramping up.

The current 'teething' problems won't last.


Russia’s college students may begin to be screened for drug abuse

07.02.2008, 19.56

By Itar-Tass World Service writer Lyudmila Alexandrova

MOSCOW, February 7 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia’s college students may soon begin to undergo mandatory testing for drug abuse. First and foremost the measure will be applied to those institutions of higher learning that train professionals expected to meet special health requirements.

The federal drugs control service argues that society backs up this idea, although some human rights activists are against.

So far, attempts by anti-drugs crusaders to translate this idea into reality on a wide scale have been not very successful, though.

On Wednesday, two senior drugs control service officials said, almost in chorus, that “some of Moscow’s colleges and universities” may introduce mandatory testing for potential drug abusers as of next autumn.

The federal drugs control service deputy chief, Vladimir Zubrin, and chief of the service’s Moscow division, Viktor Khvorostian, believe that this measure will help keep drug addicts away from high-risk, high-responsibility jobs and professions, and also from the civil service.

Zubrin said that “the idea of testing college students for drug abuse has aroused a generally favorable response from society.”

“Testing must be introduced to prevent tragedies. Drug addicts must be exposed in order to keep them from high-risk professions,” he explained.

“We support the mandatory examination of students for drug addiction, because this abuse is incompatible with many professions,” Khvorostin said. “I believe nobody will be eager to board a plane that is to be flown by a heroin-taking pilot.”

The drugs control service did not disclose the list of colleges and universities where mandatory testing for drugs abuse may begin, adding that the chiefs of educational establishments will have the final say.

“Having in college a drug addict who will never be allowed to enter the profession will be a waste of money,” the daily Kommersant quotes the chief of the drugs control service’s inter-departmental and information activity department, Alexander Mikhailov, as saying.

Dismissals of suspected drug abusers are out of the question, though. Testing will be necessary not to dismiss a student, but to identify addiction at an early stage and to monitor the overall drug abuse situation. That’s not a restriction on rights and freedoms, that’s early diagnostics,” Mikhailov explained.

According to the drugs control service a total of 5.1 million people in Russia have experience of taking narcotic drugs for purposes other than medical ones.

Moscow’s drugs abuse rate is one of the worst in Russia, says the health service watchdog Roszdravnadzor. In the city there are 1.2 million college students. So far the Moscow health service department has registered about 30,000 drug addicts and over 100,000 alcohol addicts. In this group of patients the mortality rate has been growing, partially, due to such accompanying diseases as hepatitis, HIV-infection and others.

Moscow’s Mayor Yuri Luzhkov last year said the city needed a new local law on the mandatory comprehensive medical check-ups of college students and a mandatory procedure of identifying drug addicts. The chief of the consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, Gennady Onishchenko, shares this idea.

So far Moscow’s sole institution of higher learning where testing for potential drug abusers has been held systematically for the past few years is the Bauman Moscow State Technical University.

The director of the education and methodological center called Health Saving Technologies and Prophylactics of Drug Addiction in the Youth Environment, Gennady Semikin, said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station “students have displayed understanding and we have no problems in this sense.”

“We are the pioneers. Many other colleges and universities have been watching our experience with attention,” he said. “Commercial colleges are very much interested in testing, because the title of a drugs-free establishment adds a great deal to their rating on the market of education services.”

Yet, many Moscow colleges and universities are ignorant of the drugs control service’s plans.

Some human rights campaigners argue the drugs control service’s idea is unconstitutional and contradicts the existing legislation.

In part, the chief of the New Narcotics Policy organization, Lev Levinson, told the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets, that drug abuse, in contrast to tuberculosis or flu, is not only a disease, but also an offense. If so, mandatory testing will ignore the presumption of innocence principle.

“Thefts are no less frequent than cases of ‘grass smoking’. But you are not going to make all students show the contents of their pockets at the exit, are you? Moreover, if someone tries marijuana once, he or she should be educated and instructed, and not dismissed. Dismissal will merely increase a young person’s chances of developing really strong addiction,” said Levinson.

The daily also recalls that nobody will be able to force students undergo drugs abuse tests. That will be a purely voluntary affair. Moreover, a habitual addict cannot be sent to for treatment. If a teenager is over 16, there has to be one’s personal consent.