Three men from Tajikistan and one woman from Russia have been detained in Abkhazia on suspicion of being involved in drug trafficking.
The Abkhazia Interior Ministry’s official website reported on November 24 that two men from Tajikistan – Khusrav Isoyev, 25, and Navrouzjon Safarov, 29 – and a woman from Russia – the 23-year-old Angelina Movsumova – have been detained in the city of Pitsunda on suspicion of being members of criminal ring involved in drug trafficking.
43 wraps of substance that tested positive to methadone weighing about 62 grams have been confiscated from them.
Meanwhile, another Tajik national, who was identified as the 23-year-old Shuhrat Bobonazarov, was reportedly detained in the Abkhazian city of Sukhumi on suspicion of being involved in drug trafficking on November 20. 17 wraps of methadone weighing about 15 grams have been confiscated from him.
They have reportedly smuggled methadone into Abkhazia out of Russia’s Krasnodar region.
Criminal proceedings against all four of them have been instituted under the provisions of Article 224 of Abkhazia’s Pena Code – drug trafficking.
Methadone, sold under the brand names Dolophine and Methadose among others, is a synthetic opioid agonist used for chronic pain and also for opioid use disorder. It is used to treat chronic pain, and it is also used to treat addiction to heroin or other opioids.
Methadone is made by chemical synthesis and acts on opioid receptors. It was developed in Germany in that late 1930s by Gustav Ehrhart and Max Bockmühl. Methadone was approved for use as an analgesic in the United States in 1947, and has been used in the treatment of addiction since the 1960s. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.
Methadone is a man-made opioid, similar to morphine or heroin. Methadone will cause feelings of relaxation and reduce pain, but it will not give you the same high or euphoric feeling as heroin.
