"The Russian drug market remains steady for now. These two years have not sent addiction up, according to generalised statistics," he said to newsmen today.
The number of detected drug-related crimes came 50 per cent up, and the amount of confiscated drugs by a third this year against 2003, he added.
The Service previously evaluated the number of Russian addicts at four million.
Two big gangs were caught red-handed yesterday alone-in Moscow and Chelyabinsk, with a lump 15 kilograms of heroin confiscated.
Victor Cherkesov emotionally acknowledged his Service's bungles on the recent ketamine affair. It alleged underhand trafficking of a strong veterinarian painkiller.
"I see it was a tremendous error. I feel guilty. It was a necessary job-but we started at it from the wrong end," the penitent general brought out.
Veterinary doctors found themselves in the dock, the first thing. As the matter should be, the Service ought first to have given veterinary clinics a lull to bring the situation into order. It was also essential to amend relevant bylaws, which it had taken the Agriculture and Health ministries eight months to update. Criminal proceedings ought not to have started before, stressed Mr. Cherkesov.
As things really were, ketamine criminal proceedings were launched on twenty cases or so, all over Russia. Investigation has been dropped on all but one for today.
Ketamine, popular name for cyclohexylamine, is a strong anaesthetic used in veterinary surgery. Stricken out of the list of authorised medicines, 1998, it was exonerated this year after several surgeons landed in the dock.
