Poppy seed tea on sale on Minsk (video, audio)
Euroradio continues investigation into the poppy seed tea problem in Belarus capital.
While the anti-poppy seed tea edict remains stuck at the Office of the President, drug dealers continue selling the stuff.
However, it is not easy to buy it if you are just an ordinary person. Drug enforcement agents keep poppy seed dealers under pressure, making them operate low and sell the seeds only to reliable clients.
One day before his departure amateur video director Ruslan Mirzoyeu's departure to prison helped the Euroradio correspondent buy contaminated poppy. To succeed, he had to employ his old contacts (Ruslan used to be an addict abusing the poppy seed tea).
It is around midnight in a sleeping community in Minsk, while we are waiting for a dealer who brings the stuff directly to us in an old car. Dealers deliberately choose the old vehicles so that they do not lose much if their car gets confiscated. They work in pairs: one drives, the other one collects the money and gives you the stuff.
From the car we get both 400 grams of contaminated poppy seed (enough for one and a half doze of the brew) and the so called "water"or dissolvent used to separate opiates from poppy.
Check the video to see the transaction as it happened.
This investigation shows that poppy seeds for narcotic brew are still on sale.
Euroradio reminds that a special anti-poppy legislation was drafted and approved by all law-enforcement agencies. But as we reported earlier the legislation got stuck at the Office of the President.
In mid-November Euroradio published its first investigation Poppy turns into narcotic within 39 minutes in Minsk. That video showed the realities of a drug joint, also demonstrating how easy it was to buy narcotic poppy seeds and prepare the so called poppy seed tea. By consequences, this drug is considered more dangerous and addictive than heroin.
The previous investigation also referred to pricise statistics: there are at least 130 000 people who abuse poppy seed tea. Euroradio will continue to follow this story.