Moscow, Jun 26 (IANS/RIA Novosti): The rampant drug abuse in modern Russia can be traced to the rock band Beatles and their experiments with psychedelics, a psychoactive drug, the country' top substance abuse official has said.

"After the Beatles travelled to Indian ashrams to expand their consciousness, they introduced the idea of changing your mental condition through drugs to the populace," Yevgeny Bryun said.

"When business understood that you can sell it all - pleasure and things that accompany it - this was when it all started," said Bryun, who oversees anti-drug and alcoholism efforts at the health ministry.

Modern advertising is actively promoting various "pleasures," including drugs, undermining all medics' efforts to the contrary, Bryun said at a press conference in Moscow.

Media should put more effort into anti-drug campaigns and promotion of healthy lifestyle, he said.

Russia has about five million drug addicts, a 60-percent increase from 2000, Federal Drug Control Service head Viktor Ivanov said in February.