Women drug carriers are literally being paid in flour to make bread for their children. Central Asia has also been hit disproportionately hard by the collapse of the former Soviet health care system. Dr. Jay Dobkin, Director of the AIDS program at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, provided further evidence on the danger of a rapid spread in HIV infection in the region. IDUs have proven to be the most vulnerable group due to needle sharing and unsafe sex. A 1998 United Nations Rapid Assessment survey of IDUs in the region, for example, showed that 80 to 90 percent regularly shared injection equipment, and only 5 percent reported using condoms during sex.
Drug users avoid seeking treatment mostly out of fear of arrest or harassment by authorities.
Existing legislation does more to hamper than to facilitate anti-addiction programs, other experts said. He also urged that nongovernmental organizations undertake programs to promote change in existing governmental drug policies. The Central Eurasia Project aims, through its website, meetings, papers, and grants, to foster a more informed debate about the social, politcal and economic developments of the Caucasus and Central Asia. It is a program of the Open Society Institute-New York. The Open Society Institute-New York is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that promotes the development of open societies around the world by supporting educational, social, and legal reform, and by encouraging alternative approaches to complex and controversial issues.