VZCZCXRO3761
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAH #0865/01 1921220
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 101220Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1126
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 4000
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 1817
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 1684
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL PRIORITY 2253
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000865 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EUR/ACE, INL 
DUSHANBE ALSO FOR DEA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV SNAR SOCI TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: DRUG ADDICTS HAVE NOWHERE TO TURN 
FOR ASSISTANCE 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  Families in Turkmenistan afffected by 
drug abuse struggle daily to help their family members deal 
with heroin addictions but receive little help from the 
government.  Often, they are forced to choose between cutting 
off their spouses and children or treating the drug problem 
at home since there are no effective treatment 
centers/programs in Turkmenistan.  And, despite government 
promises to implement a drug recidivism and demand reduction 
program, there are still no educational programs or other 
government-led efforts to help families.  Exacerbating the 
problem are the police, who cannot be relied upon to enforce 
drug laws.  END SUMMARY. 
 
DRUG USE IS RAPMANT IN ALL REGIONS 
 
¶3.  (U) Families in Turkmenistan affected by drug abuse 
struggle daily to help their family members deal with heroin 
addictions with little help from the goverenment.  Recent 
accounts suggest that at least one person in almost every 
extended family suffers from drug addiction.  This high usage 
figure is exacerbated by the relatively cheap narcotics and 
easy access to heroin in all parts of Turkmenistan.  Exact 
statistics are not available, but one contact suggested that, 
in a family with five or six children, there is usually at 
least one drug addict. 
 
FAMILIES ARE FORCED TO FEED DRUG HABITS 
 
¶4.  (SBU) In general, Turkmen claim that it is more likely to 
be the husband than the wife who is addicted. (COMMENT: This 
could be indicative of even heavier societal stigma against 
female drug addicts, a category generally believed to be 
limited to prostitutes. END COMMENT.)  Families with addicts 
seem to have few choices.  There are common reports of 
husbands selling everything in the household in order to gain 
additional money for another dose, and they sell these items 
for very low prices.  While the wife and children can leave 
the addict-husband through divorce or separation, the wife 
then returns to her family's home, which might also have an 
addict. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) In these instances, the spouse will often cover up 
the addict's problem from those outside the family, to the 
point that they will take extra jobs or sell family 
possessions to feed the drug habit.  In Turkmen culture, it 
is unseemly to air a family's dirty laundry in public.  This 
can lead to the addiction problem being concealed until it is 
out of control and the family runs out of alternate options. 
One observer commented that in cases she was familiar with, 
addicts were reported to the police or committed to a 
hospital "only when the family was fed up and had no other 
options." 
 
¶6.  (U) If the addict is a child, the parents will often try 
to conceal the drug addiction due to a mixture of shame and 
love for the child and, in some instances, will enable the 
addiction to prevent the child from becoming homeless or 
resorting to other means to get drugs.  Even in cases in 
which the parents force the child to leave the house, the 
child often returns, and the parents, due to Turkmen 
culture's strong sense of family obligations, will often take 
the child back into the home. 
 
REAL TREATMENT CENTERS DO NOT EXIST 
 
¶7.  (SBU) There are several treatment hospitals in 
Turkmenistan.  However, committing family members to a 
rehabilitation facility seems to be the method of last 
resort.  These hospitals all have poor reputations, with 
recidivism rates reaching close to 100%.  In fact, one person 
stated that Turkmen facilities are so bad that her 
 
ASHGABAT 00000865  002 OF 002 
 
 
ex-husband's family sent her husband to Russia to get 
effective treatment after they exhausted all internal 
resources. 
 
POLICE DETENTIONS ARE A JOKE FOR DRUG ADDICTS 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Families do not report drug addiction to the 
authorities unless they have no other choice and have 
completely run out of funds.  If the police receive a report 
about a drug addict, they will detain the addict briefly, but 
there is little likelihood that the individual will remain in 
prison.  Even if a family or neighborhood reports an addict 
to the police, it rarely helps.  One addict reportedly has 
been detained multiple times and is a known drug user. 
Nevertheless, he ususally is released within 24 to 48 hours 
of his detention and returns home.  Those detained for longer 
than a few days are often released during the next general 
national amnesty.  Some say the majority of those released by 
presidential pardon are in prison due to drug-related 
offenses.  Under such circumstances, there is little 
incentive for frustrated neighbors or families to turn to the 
legal system when dealing with drug addicts. 
 
MOTHERS LIVE IN FEAR OF DRUG-ADDLED NEIGHBORS 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Addicts returned to neighborhoods have a great 
impact on the community around them.  Mothers are fearful for 
the future of their children and the impact that drugs will 
play.  One mother, who lives next to a man known to be an 
addict, is afraid to let her children play in the 
neighborhood without supervision.  She mentioned that she 
worries that drug dealers will offer her children free drugs 
to get them hooked -- apparently a common practice -- and 
that unsavory characters come to the neighborhood in search 
of her neighbor.  These fears cross economic boundaries and 
neighborhoods. 
 
CHILDREN ARE THE REAL VICTIMS 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Those most greatly affected by this entire process 
are the children growing up in homes with drug addicts or who 
witness drug use.  A mother said that her son is ashamed to 
speak about his father, although he had no contact after the 
father became addicted.  While some children are more aware 
of the dangers of drug use due to growing up and living with 
addicts, schools have no educational programs that counsel 
against drugs.  Instead, educational efforts are left up to 
parents and the few programs offered by international 
organizations and small public organizations. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) COMMENT:  The years of denial about drug problems 
under former President Niyazov have left Turkmenistan poorly 
equipped to carry out President Berdimuhamedov's new war on 
drugs.  While the government seems committed to fighting 
narcotics trafficking, it simply does not have the human 
capacity or resources to move forward on multiple fronts. 
This and sensitivities about discussing social problems in 
public make rehabilitation and drug-demand reduction programs 
the most difficult to implement, leaving addicts and their 
families the real losers.  END COMMENT. 
HOAGLAND