"Some people are interested in keeping current drug legislation”
Yauhen Valoshyn, journalist who struggles with drugs, has told Euroradio whether it is easy to buy opium and what the legislation should to be like.
Euroradio: Are poppy-seeds used for puns a drug?
Yauhen Valoshyn: The poppy-seeds from puns are not a drug. But if you take two kilos of such poppy-seeds and prepare them with the help of the solvent “Naftan 646” produced in Belarus, you can make a strong drug similar to heroin. The Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs is conducting a research about it. Poppy-seeds are rather dangerous.
Euroradio: That’s why I slept so well when my granny baked poppy cakes….
Yauhen Valoshyn: That was not the case. Let me explain. If you simply eat poppy-seeds, nothing will happen. To make them a drug, you have to boil them in a solvent and you need some other chemical substances, etc. Then you will be able to make a drug. But you can eat a whole truck of poppy-seeds and there will be no narcotic effect.
Euroradio: It is difficult to buy opium in Belarus? Our legislation seems strict and drug addiction is prosecuted. However, judging by your words, the substance can be received easily…
Yauhen Valoshyn: It is more difficult to buy petrol or diesel oil than opium in the evening.
Euroradio: The substance that can be cooked is not heroin but the consequences are much scarier and it is much worse for people’s health. What are the stages of the addition?
Yauhen Valoshyn: I talked to an expert from the Ministry of Health and I asked him to compare heroin and the substance made from poppy-seeds with the help of solvents. He said that heroin was a vitamin in comparison with it. Just imagine: it is cooked in a solvent, if affects the psyche and body. You health is affected even when you are cooking it – you smell the vapour. Poppy addicts die three times faster than heroin addicts.
Euroradio: Yauhen, you are an experienced person. What do you think should be changed in our strict legislation to overcome this phenomenon?
Yauhen Valoshyn: Two issues need to be changed. First of all, mawseed should be announced a drug. Then drug-dealers will not be able to sell it. They know the difference between mawseed and poppy-seeds very well. It is not true that it is difficult to make it out.
The second issue is the state monopoly on the supply of poppy-seeds. Private suppliers of poppy-seeds should be jailed. The legislation should be made even stricter. There are more than 120 thousand official drug-addicts in Belarus now and our country is not that big. Those people are scary and they are in their most active age.
Euroradio: BelTA informed a few days ago that the police has detained two drug addicts who had 45 kilos of poppy-seeds on them. They may be fined for 3.5 million roubles and their car may be confiscated. Why is the punishment so mild?
Yauhen Valoshyn: 25 kilos is not that much, you can make 3 or 4 doses out of it...
Euroradio: But you may be imprisoned for up to 8 years for 1/3 gram of marijuana.
Yauhen Valoshyn: It is true. Marijuana is like a candy in comparison with opium. The thing is the law is deliberate. Let me make a hint. Mawseed is openly sold to people, journalists write about it but the legislation does not change. What can it mean? It means that some people are interested in leaving the law as is. And these people affect the Belarusian legislation. There are certain signs that mawseed supplies are controlled by people having access to the legislation.
