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The capital's Health Department has asked the Russian government to cancel Resolution No. 231 on single doses of drugs. This was announced by Moscow's Deputy Chief Psychiatrist for Narcology Evgeny Bryun at a press conference on Thursday.

He noted that this resolution essentially allows the storage of up to 10 doses of even such a hard drug as heroin. "Any drug addict at least participates in the illegal drug trade, and also persuades up to 10-15 people to use drugs," Bryun emphasized.

In addition, the doctor stated that if in the period from 2000 to 2003 in Moscow there was a steady trend towards a decrease in mortality among drug addicts - by seven times, and HIV infections - by 8.2 times, then now after the adoption of the government decree "we can expect another round of growth in consumers and related diseases."

According to the department, there are about 30 thousand drug addicts registered in Moscow, and the number of people who have tried drugs may reach 1 million.

Government Resolution N231 approving the size of average single doses of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances was adopted on May 12. This means that the liberal amendments to the Criminal Code adopted last year should also come into effect. It was these amendments that introduced the concept of an average single dose into the Criminal Code and stipulated that a case against a drug addict who is not involved in trafficking can be initiated only if he is found to have 10 or more doses of the drug (50 doses are especially large). Possession of a smaller amount of drugs results in administrative liability.

Drug fighters opposed such changes from the very beginning, and therefore the anti-drug agency made every effort to ensure that the amendments remained just a declaration. In particular, the tables of single doses proposed by the State Drug Control Service and the Permanent Committee on Drug Control (PCDC) allowed for holding patients accountable with the smallest amount of the drug. On the other side of the barricades were human rights activists and the Ministry of Justice, who argued that a single dose for drug addicts could be approximately 1000 times greater than for a healthy person.