Methadone, a common treatment for heroin, is all but banned in Russia as a treatment option.

From the New York Times:

The conference seemed innocuous enough: a Moscow hotel, slide shows and several dozen doctors and specialists gathered to discuss how to treat heroin addiction. But then members of a Kremlin youth group called the Young Guard arrived, crowding the hotel’s entrance and denouncing the participants as criminals and paid agents of the West.

The focus of their outrage was methadone, a drug prescribed by doctors around the world to wean addicts from heroin. A synthetic form of opium, methadone is central to a therapy endorsed by the United Nations and 55 countries, including the United States.

But not Russia. Though heroin abuse is widely linked to the country’s H.I.V. epidemic and the spread of criminality, the issue of methadone treatment is all but taboo here.