According to a recent poll by the Levada Center, 88 percent of Russians over the age of 18 have never taken drugs outside medical prescription. Only 17 percent know someone who has used non-prescribed drugs, with an overwhelming 80 percent answering in the negative.

It is thus unsurprising that among this demographic, which has limited first-hand experience of drug use, 69 percent would favor drug testing in schools, 72 percent would approve of criminal charges against drug users and 75 percent are against legalization of "light" drugs such as cannabis.

It is fair to point out that Russia's experience with drug use is a fairly recent problem. Apocryphally, there was no sex in the Soviet Union. But there was also very little in the way of drugs or rock 'n' roll, too.

According to a 1971 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, drug addiction was "not a serious problem in the Soviet Union."

But post-Soviet Russia's relationship with addiction has been fretful, to say the least. Having Afghanistan — producer of over 90...