MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) - Russia will never allow drugs to be sold legally on its territory, Russian Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said.
"There is a global trend of the legalization of drugs at the level of the policy of certain states. This drug culture is now developing and finding acceptance, and they are trying to impose it on us," he said in an interview as part of the Lichno Detyam (Personally to Children) project implemented at the council of the Russian presidential commissioner for children's rights.
"We, our country, we have adhered and been consistent proponents of the zero tolerance stance. We insist that drug addiction is an illness and drug addicts need to be treated, but we will not sell drugs legally and weaken control over them," Zubov said.
Russia "has an issue with synthetic drugs, which also have not been developed within our country," he said. "We're combating it, we're maintaining a good dialogue with the police of other countries," Zubov said.
Additionally, Russian law enforcers "managed to fully block, if not stop, the mass flows of drugs from the sites where they are grown in Afghanistan," he said.