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For the past three years, the number of registered drug users in Primorye has declined by 12 percent, the region’s Governor Sergei Darkin said voicing the statistics at his meeting with officials from the regional Police Department to Combat Drug Trafficking on Tuesday.

Darkin’s visit aimed to sum up the results of the Department’s anti-drug activities for the period as well as to deliver monetary bonuses to the drug-control officials for their distinguished work, a statement from the regional administration said.

Since 2003, the regional drug trafficking police have disclosed about 1,500 drug dealing locations, 50 drug trafficking criminal groups and seized over 11 tons of narcotics. A total of 1,700 criminal cases were filed against drug distributors for the period, Darkin said.

The decline in drug use resulted from the joint activities of the local narcotics officers and authorities, Darkin stressed. Since 2005, the regional administration has been implementing the program 'Primorye Without Drugs' aimed to prevent drug availability and usage.

According to Darkin, due to the program being ranked second at the national contest amongst regional anti-drug programs in December 2006, Primorye’s Department to Combat Drug Trafficking will receive a sum of 4 million rubles ($152,670) to improve its technical equipment base.

Meanwhile, as of the beginning of 2007, a total of 10,200 drug addicts were officially registered in Primorye, the actual figure being about five times higher. Last year, the number of drug users in the region was 1.5 times greater than in the other regions of the Russian Far East.