The spread of alcoholism and drug addiction in the regions of Russia

Alcoholism and drug addiction are serious social diseases that have a negative impact on many socio-economic indicators. The article presents the results of a study of alcoholism and drug addiction in Russia at the regional level: current data are given, regions with the best and worst values are highlighted, and dynamics over the past 15 years is shown. Despite positive changes and a decrease in officially registered cases of alcoholism and drug addiction in Russia, the real picture does not seem so rosy, and the negative impact of alcoholism and drug addiction on the most important indicators of quality of life and human potential remains high, that is confirmed by the results of this study. An attempt was made to find the causes for discrepancy between official data and real ones, as well as to identify the functional relationships of the studied indicator with other indicators of human potential and quality of life that can act as causes or consequences of alcoholism and drug addiction. According to the results of the correlation analysis, taking into account direct and reverse time lags for 8 years for 10 socio-economic indicators, there was revealed an extremely negative impact of alcoholism and drug addiction on the most important indicators of human potential, primarily on life expectancy, infant mortality, and the number of crimes and murders. The prospects for further research on the topic are described based on the experience gained in the course of this study.