Krokodil - Russia's deadliest drug - Nsfw

[MUSIC PLAYING] MALE SPEAKER 1: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] [SOVIET ANTHEM PLAYING] ALISON SEVERS: In 1979, the Soviet army entered Afghanistan, engaging in a brutal 10-year conflict which kick-started the Afghan *** trade. It was sold all over the world to help fund the fight against the Soviets, but the main customers of the *** were the Russians themselves. After the fall of the Soviet union in 1991, Russia's *** problem continued to grow. So much so, that in 2011, the country has become the world's biggest consumer of ***. [MUSIC CONTINUES] ALISON SEVERS: With a southern border more than 4,000 miles long, we're talking about a patrol area greater than the distance from New York to London. It's no wonder the drug trade is out of control. We travelled to the small Siberian city of Novokuznetsk, which lies just over the Russian border with Kazakhstan, and is on the front line of this *** epidemic. Once a Siberian industrial powerhouse, now this city has fallen into decline, with 20% of its population allegedly addicted to ***. We'd heard stories about ex-addicts building coffins to bury their friends, and religious cults disguised as rehab clinics. Worst of all though were rumors of a new moonshine drug called krokodil that has some terrifying consequences. Nowhere are Russia's drug problems more evident than here. We've come to an area where there's a lot of derelict building that are being squatted by addicts as a place to use and to live. Everywhere I look around me, there are syringes. There's more syringes here than I've ever seen in my entire life. MALE SPEAKER 2: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: Why are you hanging out here? MALE SPEAKER 2: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: This area is called Zavodskoy and was once the purpose-built housing estates of the Soviet workforce. Now, these imposing tower blocks are just empty shells. These young men have been living in this abandoned building for two months. MALE SPEAKER 3: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 4: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 5: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 4: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 5: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 4: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 3: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKERS: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 3: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 4: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 3: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 4: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE INTERVIEWER: When was the last time you went to see a doctor or a hospital? MALE SPEAKER 3: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 6: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MALE SPEAKER 3: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] [MUSIC PLAYING] ALISON SEVERS: Sasha Pelikhov works for an organization called Regenerate Russia, which helps rehabilitate *** addicts in Novokuznetsk. Sasha explained to us that there might be more to the drug trade than just making money. SASHA PELIKHOV: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: There's a widely held belief that a phenomenon called narcoterrorism fuels the drug trade. It's said that Afghan terror groups help expediate the supply of *** to Russia in order to both profit from their former invaders and also weaken the population by poisoning them with ***. This is what's known as the Golden Crescent. It's the route that *** takes from northern Afghanistan, throughout Central Asia, and into Russia. Sasha told us that the center of the local trade was at the food markets just outside the city center. It's where trucks from Kazakhstan are offloaded with *** for distribution around Novokuznetsk and the wider areas. We were told to approach this place with extreme caution, and not to get out of the car. As we drove slowly through the market, we noticed gangs of men doing business next to their trucks. Many of them bore Kazakhstan license plates. It didn't take long to get us noticed. All of a sudden, someone spotted our cameras, and people started beeping their horns and yelling. MALE SPEAKER 7: Why are people beeping? MALE SPEAKER 7: Yeah, everyone's checking us out now. MALE SPEAKER 8: Yeah, let's just get the *** out. MALE SPEAKER 7: Let's get the *** out of there. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. ALISON SEVERS: There's two pretty snazzy cars behind us. Those are the first snazzy cars I've seen since we've been here. Probably going to follow us and kill us now. The vans have got along the right-hand side of the number plate, had KZ, which means, obviously, the cars have been trucked in from Kazakhstan. MALE SPEAKER 9: It doesn't mean Kool Zines? ALISON SEVERS: No. It doesn't mean kool zines. It means *** naughty *** trafficker from Kazakhstan. That's what it *** means. Well, there's still a car that looks the same. Or maybe all the cars just look the same. OK. We lost the cars and headed back to meet Sasha somewhere safe, or so we thought. MALE SPEAKER 10: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: It kind of just feels like walking into a forest in the middle of Siberia, plus a lot of very angry dogs. That one actually did that whole, like, err, I'm going to *** kill you thing. After about five minutes of walking through Vorstadt, we met this guy. Sasha told us he was salvaging scrap metal, which is the most common way for *** users to fund their addiction. MALE SPEAKER 11: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] [MUSIC PLAYING] MALE SPEAKER 11: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] [DOG GROWLING AND BARKING] MALE SPEAKER 9: What is it? ALISON SEVERS: Because I can't see where the syringes are. They're *** everywhere. Opposite the rehabilitation center, there's just a deserted building where there's syringes all over the floor, and, like, empty bottles of this stuff. ALISON SEVERS: What's this? Sasha. MALE SPEAKER 12: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SASHA PELIKHOV: What is in Tropikamid? [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: Sasha explained that the eyedrops were one of the main ingredients of a new drug called krokodil, a kind of moonshine ***. Krokodil is so called because it turns the user's skin scaly and eats them from the inside out. SASHA PELIKHOV: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: That woman walked past us earlier when we were on our way out to the brothel. And Sasha told me the she's on the road, which mean she's a working ***. She's just walked past now. She's met up with a guy, and she's going to go have sex with him down there. Brilliant. That's completely depressing. *** hell. With high volumes of drug addicts comes high volumes of prostitution. And Novokuznetsk is no exception. What was worrying here was how young the girls were. So over there, I can see two girls. One of them looks about 14, and they've been talking to a succession of men who are stopping in cars at the side of the street. And in fact there's so much going on here with crime and drug use, you'd expect to see police cars and ambulances, but I haven't seen any of them. [MUSIC PLAYING] NATASHA: [SINGING IN RUSSIAN] [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: The Russian government offers very little support for addicts. There are no local state-funded rehab centers, and so the void has been filled by private organizations. They range from centers like this one, where the addicts provide volunteer work to pay for their treatment, to evangelical churches that have been accused of running like cults. OLEYSA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: I heard a lot of people died. OLEYSA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] NATASHA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: Oh. NATASHA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] NATASHA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] [CHOIR SINGING] ALISON SEVERS: After we left the girls, we went to visit the priest of the main orthodox church in Novokuznetsk. I had to wear a head scarf in order to be able to talk to him. Spasibo. MINISTER VASILY: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: So this is the bit that we bought in the shop in your church. And it says, Christian sects, how they're servants of the anti-Christ. Is this relevant in this city? MINISTER VASILY: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] YEVGENY: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: This is Yevgeny. By day, he's a funeral director, and by night, he run the Novokuznetsk branch of Teen Challenge, which is an American Christian charity that now has missionaries and centers in over 70 countries around the world, and it's growing rapidly. He told us to come along to meet his congregation in a remote part of the city which was an hour drive up a very steep hill. And when we arrived, we found this. [RUSSIAN ROCK MUSIC PLAYING] ALISON SEVERS: This is the sleeping room for the brotherhood here at Teen Challenge, which is Yevgeny's church group [SINGING IN RUSSIAN[ ALISON SEVERS: This is a rehabilitation center for people involved in Teen Challenge, which is an American church that's come to Russia. And now Yevgeny practices their doctrine. I think that Teen Challenge is a cult, to be honest. MALE SPEAKER 13: Today, I live here six months. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ help me. [SINGING CONTINUES] MINISTER VASILY: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] [SINGING CONTINUES] [APPLAUSE] WORSHIP LEADER: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: This is Sergey. We met him begging outside on the street, and he said most of the people he knew have been affected by *** and krokodil. SERGEY: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SEREZHA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: Later that night, Sergey took us on a tour of local pharmacies to show us how easy it is to pick up the ingredients for krokodil. So these are 24-hour pharmacies that we're going to. You can do this any time of the day. SERGEY: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: Sergey said he knew someone who could cook the krokodil for us. He promised to meet us again. That was the last time we saw him. ALEXEY: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: Alexey is the pastor of an independent church that reforms *** and krokodil addicts. ALEXEY: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: Alexey took us to meet his friend, whose family has been destroyed by krokodil. With a drug that can kill it users so quickly, it's very rare to meet survivors. LYUDMILA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MISHA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SERGEY: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: And you been taking krokodil? SERGEY: We have, yeah. MISHA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: When did you start taking it? MISHA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] SERGEY: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] MISHA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] LYUDMILA: [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] ALISON SEVERS: I felt quite helpless leaving Lyudmila's house, but nowhere near as helpless as she must feel. Her health, home, and family life have been totally destroyed by krokodil, a drug you can just work out how to make with the help of internet forums. President Medvedev has talked about closing down the websites that are providing this information, but the internet seems harder to police than the border. I can't see any way out for these people if they're relying on that. Drug users are developing new, terrifying ways of consuming opiates faster than the government can decide on any form of policy. The church and the sects aren't the answer, but sadly, they seem to be the best hope these young people have in a city that really does feel like it's been forgotten.