Kazak Drug Testing Fears

Tuesday, 22 February, 2005

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Roman Sadanov

Government plans to introduce compulsory drug testing at schools and universities have been greeted with dismay and suspicion by students and health care professionals alike.

The authorities believe that the programme, which would include an annual test, will reduce the number of addicts in the republic and also help to bring down Kazakstan’s rising rates of HIV infection.

They argue that these steps will help to identify the real extent of the country’s drugs problems, but human rights activists argue that such heavy-handed tactics will merely exacerbate things, and lead to further discrimination against addicts.

Yevgeni Zhovtis, director of the Bureau of Human Rights and Rule of Law in Almaty, told IWPR, “This a clear violation of human rights as these procedures [drugs testing] have to be conducted on a strictly voluntary basis.

“Those who want to be tested should have the possibility to do so, but it should not be compulsory.”

Deputy Education Minister Kulyash Shamshidinova sought to allay these fears, saying that the testing will be used to identify “at risk” groups and to provide programmes designed to tackle drug addiction. The authorities are also developing plans for dedicated medical units to work with addicts.

While no start date has been given, Deputy Health Minister Saule Dikanbaeva confirmed that the programme has been finalised for 2004, telling IWPR, “Half a million US dollars in funding for testing among schoolchildren and college and university students has been secured.”

The latest initiative appears to have been prompted by the publication in the state newspaper Kazakhstanskaya Pravda of an investigation which seemed to show that drugs were readily available at the showcase Eurasian University.

Following the report, the university administration carried out compulsory testing of more than 7,000 students – but they claim that not one tested positive, and no evidence was found to suggest that drugs were on sale on campus.

These events appeared to have prompted the education and health ministries to introduce testing nationwide.

While Dikanbaeva stressed that testing will not be forced on students, she added that those who refuse to take part would inevitably attract suspicion.

News of the drugs testing programme has been greeted with dismay by students, who fear its impact on their education and future careers, as any graduate, no matter how talented, would be unable to secure a government job if they had tested positive for drugs at any point in their lives.

Saule Khasenova, a retired teacher from Astana, told IWPR that the Kazak education system has inherited many of the old Soviet system’s worst points – including a lack of basic rights for students.

“There is no concept of helping the students,” she said, adding that the methods used have more in common with “revealing, frightening and expelling” than being supportive.

She said that when teaching staff receive a directive from the authorities, the usual response is to treat it as an order. “They will most probably force the students to undergo testing en masse,” she claimed, adding that any refusniks could be subjected to punitive measures and would be labelled as “drug addicts” regardless.

Marie Struthers, a human rights activist who has experience in the field of AIDS awareness, pointed out that there are no safeguards for keeping test results confidential as various government agencies - particularly law enforcement bodies - routinely share information of this kind and sometimes even pass it to employers.

“The potential for abuse of the voluntary testing programme is very large, given Kazakstan’s past and its current attitude towards HIV-positive persons and those vulnerable to infection - including drug addicts,” she said.

Government figures suggest that there are more than 50,000 intravenous drug users in Kazakstan – although independent estimates place the real number closer to 250,000 – and UNAIDS estimates that 85 per cent of new HIV/AIDS cases in the republic involve drug use.

The country is believed to have more than double the number of persons with the deadly virus than the other four Central Asian nations combined – which explains why the authorities are no longer able to ignore the issue. The numbers are still comparatively low in a global context - 25,000 out of a population of 16 million - but the infection rate is rising all the time.

Tackling the problem is relatively high on the government’s agenda, but some specialists believe that testing will be ineffectual. “The extent of drug use in Kazakstan is such that this programme won’t have any effect,” said Gayana Ryazanova, doctor at an Almaty AIDS clinic.

Rather than testing all students, health authorities, she argued, should focus on identifying regular drug users, “It does not make sense to test all students. Also some real drug addicts will not be spotted, if at the time of the compulsory test they are temporarily off the needle.”

One student at Astana’s agricultural university, who gave his name only as Tahir, was also sceptical, “I doubt that mandatory drug testing will help to reduce number of drug users. We have annual compulsory HIV testing but the number of infected is steadily rising.”

Roman Sadanov is a pseudim for a journalist in Astana.