MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. The United States uses the issue of combating drugs to exert political pressure on Venezuela, Bolivia, Iran and Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told a roundtable in the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament.
"We see a trend towards increasing politicization of drug problems. Western countries are making attempts to use anti-drug themes to put political pressure on Venezuela, Bolivia, Iran and Syria. It is noteworthy that the term of "narcoterrorism" is included in the American legislation, which allows Washington under pretext of combating this threat to use all its tools in its fight against these countries," the deputy foreign minister said.
The diplomat stressed that the drug threat remains an acute challenge today, and "the drug criminal uses increasingly sophisticated measures for the distribution of prohibited substances," quickly adapting to new conditions, which became especially noticeable during the pandemic. Among the latest dangerous trends, he also named the rapid growth of the production of methamphetamine and cannabis "in Afghanistan, the global opiate lab".
"Calls for legalizing drugs for medical use are sounding louder and louder. The drug-liberal countries are simply on the offensive in the process of UN conferences on this topic," the deputy minister said. According to him, these countries have recently presented a united front at these events. Syromolotov drew attention to the liberalization of legislation in this regard in the US, Canada and Mexico.