Turkmenistan government covering up drug problem

AP , ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN

Kristina tapped the veins on top of her right foot and plunged in a syringe filled with cloudy fluid, slowly pressing the stopper down to deliver her dose of heroin.

"I'm home," the 29-year-old prostitute said, leaning back to let the high course through her emaciated body, satisfying the craving she's nurtured as a drug addict for eight years. The cost: the equivalent of US$2.60.

This scene in a dingy backroom in the capital Ashgabat isn't happening -- at least not according to the authoritarian government of this Central Asian nation. Since 2000, Turkmenistan has failed to report any drug seizures to international organizations and President Saparmurat Niyazov has claimed the country -- next door to Afghanistan, source of most of the world's opium -- has no drug problem.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/06/13/2003174869