Around one and a half million people are addicted to heroin in Russia, a Health Ministry top specialist told RIA Novosti.

"Over 500,000 people are officially registered as being addicted to drugs," Yevgeny Bryun said, adding that the real figure was some three times higher. He noted that most of these people were heroin users.

He also said that while up to three million Russians had tried drugs at some point in their lives, these were not drug addicts.

"This is something the press sometimes gets mixed up," he added.

He also said that 30% of university students took or had taken drugs.

Russia is battling a rise in the flow of heroin from Afghanistan into its North Caucasus region. Afghanistan produces more than 90% of the world's opium, the main raw material for heroin and a major source of revenue for the Taliban-led insurgency in the country.

Afghan opium production increased dramatically after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban in 2001, and Russia has been one of the most affected countries, with heroin consumption rising steeply.

Russia was the biggest consumer of Afghan heroin in 2008, accounting for 21% of Afghanistan's production according to the UNODC report "Addiction, Crime and Insurgency" released in February

There are around 30,000 deaths annually from heroin in Russia, which also sees around a million deaths each year from alcohol or tobacco-related diseases.

MOSCOW, March 9 (RIA Novosti)