Russia's drug control chief Viktor Ivanov opened on Saturday the Far Eastern Drug Observatory to monitor drug trafficking in North East Asia.
The aim of the Observatory in the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk is to collect and analyze information on the fight against drug trafficking across the region.
"In creating the Observatory, we have drawn on international experience," Ivanov told a video conference.
"It is important to understand that it is impossible to work out effective methods of combating drug trafficking without allowing for migration processes, information about labor markets and demography as well as the situation in penal institutions," he said.
He said that despite the region being a long distance away from Afghanistan, the world's largest opium producer, the number of drug addicts in the region is climbing.
Ivanov said 50% of drug addicts in the Far East are consumers of heroin coming from Afghan poppy plantations.
The Far Eastern Observatory is expected to closely cooperate with the Russian Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service (FSB) as well as China, which has repeatedly voiced concerns about the growing drug threat from Afghanistan.
The drug control police in Russia's Far East have seized nearly 12 tons of drugs across the region since the start of the year.
Afghan drug production increased dramatically after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban in 2001. Russia has been one of the countries most affected by the increase.
According to Russia's Federal Drug Control Service, Afghan heroin kills around 100,000 people around the world, including 30,000 Russians each year.
MOSCOW, June 26 (RIA Novosti)
