He explained that at the state had registered 486,000 users by the end of last year.
However, he said that using globally accepted methods the real figure should be increased through a co-efficient of between eight and ten. "Using this co-efficient," he said while speaking live on Ekho Moskvy, "we believe that the number of people in our country who use drugs to varying degrees could be up to four million."
At the same time, he said, the number of drug addicts in Russia was considerably lower than the relevant figures for Europe or America.
Mr. Cherkesov explained that about a thousand of drug-relate criminal cases were opened every week in Russia.
From July 1 2003 to June 20 2004, his service had identified and helped solve 41,000 crimes. More than 80% of them were serious crimes involved in organized crime.
According to Mr. Cherkesov, drug-related crime is most noticeable in major cities, such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and others.
