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The Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan) is a land-locked country situated in the northeastern part of Central Asia. The total area of the Republic is 198,500 square kilometers. 90% of its territory is situated above 1,500 m above sea level. The Kyrgyz Republic is bounded by Kazakhstan in the north and northwest, by China in the east and south, and by Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in the south and west. Mountains separate the country’s demographic-economic centers: the Chui Valley (Semirechie) in the North, and the Ferghana Valley in the South. The capital of Kyrgyzstan is Bishkek (called Frunze between 1926 and 1991).

Demographics and Human Development Index indicators

Before 1974 Kyrgyzstan cultivated licit opium which composed 86% of the whole Soviet Union’s needs for its pharmaceutical industry (equal to 16% of the world opium production).

Till 1967 cannabis was cultivated as an industrial crop for the needs of light industry. Therefore, there are still some fields in Chui Valley, Issyk-Kul region and Toktogul district where wild cannabis grows.

Kyrgyz official resources report wild-growing cannabis (6-7,000 ha) and ephedra (5.5-8,000 ha) as well as retentive practice of illicit cultivation of poppy in the country.

Law enforcement reported on 32 cases of illicit cultivation of opium poppy in Issyk-Kul region in January-October 2003, which is almost twice less than for the same period of 2002. Official reports explain this decrease by the preventive measures undertaken by the law enforcement.

Trafficking

Increases in trafficking across Kyrgyzstan’s territory has been part of the larger trend over recent years of increasing trafficking of drugs out of Afghanistan via the “Northern Route”, which runs through the Central Asian states onward to the Russian Federation and generally further onward to European markets.

The snow-covered mountain passes along the Chinese and Tajik borders are known to be some of the most heavily-used trafficking routes, and the southwest regional districts of Osh and Batken are primary ground and air transit points for drugs coming from Afghanistan and Tajikistan, being shipped onward to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

As in other Central Asian countries, heroin smuggling has increased significantly. The increase reflects the development of large-scale heroin production capacity in Afghanistan. However, since 1999 drug situation in the country has overcome certain changes. If earlier the main traffic had used Khorog-Osh highway, then now predominant widespread mode of drug traffic is horse-pedestrian along the whole perimeter of Kyrgyz-Tajik frontier, which is visually proved by increase of seizures and quantity of seized drugs.

Prices

Relocation of the global drug production center into Afghanistan and subsequent growth of drug transit from Afghanistan through Central Asian countries resulted in sufficient price-cutting both in regional and domestic black market of drugs.

Official statistics show that retail drug prices in Kyrgyzstan for opium have been steady for much of the country, whereas the prices for heroin have been decreasing, particularly in the city of Osh, where a dose of heroin has been reported to be cheaper than a bottle of vodka or beer. Wholesale prices are also reported to have dropped in Osh from about USD10,000/kg in 1997 to USD 4-5,000/kg in 2003.

The following average wholesale and retail prices were collected by the Ministry of Interior of the Kyrgyz Republic as of April 1, 2003.

Types of Drugs Consumed

Kyrgyzstan has among the highest reported opiate abuse prevalence rates in the world. Official reports explain that in the early 1990s hashish accounted for most detected drug abuse, but that opium and heroin drug has now become the most prevalent form, and that drug injection has increased considerably. As of July 1, 2003, 63.5% of all the registered drug users in the country use opium and heroin and 25% use cannabis.

Prevalence

As of July 1, 2003, the number of registered addicts in the country was 5,591 including 12 under-ages. However, the real number of drug-dependent people and drug addicts can be higher by 10-15 times. According to the estimation of UN experts, Kyrgyzstan has the biggest number of drug addicts among Central Asian countries (1,644 addicts per 100,000 of the population or 2% of the total population). The increases in the prevalence of drug abuse in recent years are likely the result of increased trafficking, in-kind payments to couriers, a lack of government resources for prophylactic intervention, and economic hardship among Kyrgyz youth.

Demography of Abusers

The age of an average drug addict in Kyrgyzstan has significantly dropped. In particular, according to the findings of the joint with UNODC project “Preliminary Assistance in Drug Demand Reduction: Rapid Situation Assessment of Drug Abuse in Central Asia”, 12-15-year-old heroin addicts were noted in Kyrgyzstan. According to a sociological survey conducted by the Republican Narcology Centre in the first half of 2001, 17.5% of high school students in the capital of Kyrgyzstan had tried drugs at least once. Due to these circumstances, drug addiction among teenagers has become a particularly grave problem since it is usually accompanied with child prostitution, vagrancy, and hooliganism as consequences of the general unfavourable social environment.

Intravenous Drug Use (IDU) and HIV/AIDS

The increasing prevalence of heroin use has led to a boom in intravenous drug use, which has been accompanied by a rapid spread of AIDS, HIV infection and hepatitis. For the last three years the number of those who were registered with the diagnosis of HIV-positive is almost 8 times more as compared with the period of June 2000. More than 83% amongst them are intravenous drug users. The majority of HIV-infected people and intravenous drug addicts lives in the Osh region.

Drug-Related Crime

Growth of social and economic difficulties resulted in wide involvement of various layers of the population into drug industry and generation of so-called “people’s” drug industry. There is also increasing tendency of transforming the country into large “cesspool” of drugs that simultaneously results in increase of both common and drug-related crimes. Practically each 10th detected crime in Kyrgyzstan relates with illicit drug circulation.

Indices of the drug-related crimes in the Kyrgyz Republic for the first six months of 2003, as compared with the same period of 2002, slightly increased. The crime rate reveled during the first half of 2003 was 1,541 against 1,480 in first half of 2002. Basic crimes committed in the sphere of illicit drug circulation were as follows: storage of drugs (1,069 cases), sale of drugs (245), cultivation of drug-bearing plants, smuggling of drugs (45), etc.

Counter-efforts

Domestic Drug Control Framework

National Legislation

There is a number of anti-drug laws, governmental decrees and state programmes in the Kyrgyz Republic. Some of them are as follows:

2. Decree on specialized brigades for eradication of wild-growing cannabis (February 1996);

3. Decree on the order of seizure, storage and eradication of drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors (September 1997);

4. State Programme against drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking for 2001-2003.

The Regulations for the Register of entities engaged in legal circulation of drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors to be registered and controlled by the State has been approved in 2003.

A package of the standard and legal documents has been prepared by the State Commission for Drug Control under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic relating to the establishing of the Drug Control Agency in Kyrgyzstan and amendments to be made into some legislative acts of the Kyrgyz Republic.

National Drug Control Institutions

As with other Central Asian states, Kyrgyzstan has had to cope and counter with increasing drug problems during the difficult and resource-draining transition following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Before June 2003, Kyrgyzstan’s chief drug control institution was the State Commission for Drug Control (SCDC) established under the Government in 1993. To improve counter-effort capabilities, it was proposed to create a Drug Control Agency (DCA) similar to the Tajik one. After the execution of necessary agreements, the project document on establishment of the agency was signed by Prime-Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic on June 9, 2003 and in accordance with the presidential decree No. 182 the Drug Control Agency was established on the basis of SCDC on June 17, 2003. The official opening of the Agency by President is expected to be in the beginning of May 2004. In accordance with the statutory provision of the Agency, it is law enforcement and executive body and non-member of the Government, that pursues policy in the field of legal circulation of drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors, precludes illicit drug circulation and coordinates activity of other executive bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic in this field.

There is an independent counter-narcotics department within the Ministry of Interior, which was established for the first time in ex-USSR in April 1991.

The National Intelligent Service of the republic also includes the anti-drug department in its structure.

The following institutions have been established by the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic in 2003 in order to fight against the spreading of HIV/AIDS associated with drug injection:

Countering Cultivation, Production, Supply, and Trafficking

Formerly, the chemicals were used for eradication of the crops, but due to the expensiveness of this method it was replaced by machine tools.

Seizures

Seizures of Illicit Drugs in Kyrgyzstan, 2001-2003

Type of drugs	2001	2002	January-June 2003
Opium (kg)	469,225	109,295	37,816
Heroin (kg)	170,898	271,250	49,791
Cannabis (kg, herb)	2,250,663	2,525,915	1,895,263

There are clear changes in the structure of illicit circulation of drugs – opium is seized less than heroin that is reflecting the large-scale heroin production capacity within Afghanistan.

Demand Reduction and Rehabilitation

Treatment and Rehabilitation

Kyrgyzstan is the first CIS country, which began implementing methadone substitution programmes in 2002. Under one such programme, co-administered with UNDP and UNAIDS, methadone has been distributing free to intravenous drug users (IDUs) and HIV-positive IDUs in Bishkek and Osh to reduce the risk of infection from sharing needles. The first results of the programme are giving hope and organizers ask respective organs to support them in implementing these programmes in other regions.

Kyrgyzstan has also established needle-exchange programmes in Bishkek, Tokmok and Osh cities.

Education and Public Information Programmes

The State Program against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking includes information and education initiatives to prevent drug addiction among youth, such as the “Entering the 21st Century without Drugs” programme, conducted in June 2000 and 2001 within the framework of the World Day against Drug Abuse and Trafficking through a joint effort of The State Commission on Drug Control and State Committee of Tourism and Sport.

The government has produced a number of counter-narcotics public announcements broadcast over local television including a programme entitled “Drugs, Truth and Lies.” In addition, billboards and other media have carried the publicized slogan “Into the 21st Century without Drugs”. These efforts are supported by private initiatives, such those carried out by the association “Kyrgyzstan without Drugs”.

International Cooperation

The Kyrgyz Republic is a party to the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, as amended by the 1972 Protocol, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1988 UN Drug Convention from April 1994. It is also a party to the Central-Asian Counter Narcotics Protocol, a regional cooperation agreement encouraged by the UN.

Multilateral Agreements and Programmes

Kyrgyzstan is party to numerous regionally-based drug control agreements organized through UNDP, ECO, OSCE, UNODC and other organizations. Protocol of the second session of Central-Asian Community Interstate Commission on Drug Control of 2000 paves the way for intensification and strengthening cooperation between regional anti-drug and customs authorities as well as for establishing common information database in the field of drug control and optimization and harmonization of legal and regulatory framework of participating states to this end.

Implementation of anti-drug efforts within the EU CADAP Programme for Central Asia has started since the mid-year of 2001 up to 2003. The programme budget for Kyrgyzstan amounts to 3 mln. Euros and envisages establishment of up-to-date checkpoints at airports of regional capitals and large seaports.

On May 4 1996 the five Central Asian states signed a Memorandum of Understanding on sub-regional drug control cooperation, which was also joined by Russia and the Agha Khan Foundation in January 1998 and by Azerbaijan in September 2001.

In 1996 the law enforcement agencies of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed an agreement on cooperation in combating the illicit traffic in drugs.

On April 21, 2000 Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed a Treaty on Concerted Action in Combating Terrorism, Political and Religious Extremism, Transnational Organized Crime and Other Threats to the Stability and Security of the Signatory Parties which addresses also drug trafficking.

In October 2000 a Declaration of the Priorities for Cooperation to Counter Drugs, Organized Crime and Terrorism was adopted by the Central Asian countries at the International Conference on Enhancing Security and Stability in Central Asia: an Integrated Approach to Counter Drugs, Organized Crime and Terrorism, jointly organized by UNODCCP and OSCE in Tashkent.

In December 2001 UNODCCP presented a Regional Programme comprising a strategic framework and the ongoing and pipeline projects at the “Bishkek International Conference on Enhancing Security and Stability in Central Asia: Strengthening Comprehensive Efforts to Counter Terrorism”, jointly organized by UNODCCP and OSCE. The participants of the Conference endorsed the Declaration and Programme of Action to Counter Terrorism, which emphasized additional needs of the Central Asian states in technical and financial assistance.

In September 2002 some CIS countries agreed on combating drug trafficking, to pursue joint measures in investigating drug-related crime and to promote drug abuse prevention activities. One of their initial measures was the successful preventive operation “Channel-2003”.

Kyrgyzstan has also been part of “Operation Containment”, a regional effort launched in 2002 and led by the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency to interdict drugs flowing out of Afghanistan. As part of this program, the Bishkek Command Center was one of two command posts (the other in Bucharest, Romania), at which interdiction and intelligence-gathering efforts were coordinated in 2002.

The international conference “Great Silk Road is the path of peace and dialogue” was held together with the “Soros-Kyrgyzstan” foundation in April 2003. Representatives from Central Asian countries, international organizations and non-governmental organizations participated in it.

Bilateral Agreements and Programmes

The Kyrgyz Republic has signed bilateral and multilateral agreements concerning narcotics control with all CIS countries as well as Pakistan, Germany, Austria, China, Iran, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic.

Complementary protocol “On drug control and rendering assistance in the sphere of law application” has been signed between Kyrgyzstan and the USA. According to this document, the USA will render its assistance for anti-drug organs of Kyrgyzstan by providing of maintenance supply amounting USD 465,000.

Working consultations were held between UNODC experts and officials from the ministries and departments of Kyrgyzstan on the ways of implementation of the following projects in Kyrgyzstan: “Control over precursors in Central Asia” and “Law enforcement systems for gathering, analyzing and exchange of operational and other kinds of information in the sphere of fight against drugs”.

In order to identify and destroy the routes of drug transportation, the anti-drug departments of the Ministry of Interior of the Kyrgyz Republic have made 7 joint controlled deliveries (6 – with Kazakhstan and 1 – with Russia) during the first six-months of 2003.

Geography and Topography