#5 – Russia-Alcohol, 7.1% Per Capita

Russia’s public health enemy #1 is actually a legal drug: alcohol, namely vodka. The Richest cites research statistics revealing that most of the 25% of Russian men who don’t reach the age of 55 die from alcohol-related causes: liver disease, alcohol poisoning, and alcohol-influenced accidents, violence or even suicide affecting negatively the overall lifespan for the average Russian. On the other hand, the Head of the Federal Drug Control Service, Viktor Ivanov, asserts that Russian citizens spend more on illegal drugs in a year than the annual budget of the Ministry of Defense. Aside from alcohol, heroin also constitutes an enormous problem. A porous border with Afghanistan where the upstream heroin drug trade originates could the problem.