Iran, like the West, has a drugs problem
By Fredrik Dahl
Tue May 22,
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Young Iranians queue for methadone to help end years of drug addiction. Elsewhere in the building, a pale, bearded man lies motionless on a bed, his eyes closed, after starting detoxification.
In the yellow brick building in downtown Tehran, an Iranian non-governmental organization is helping people kick the habit and fighting narcotics abuse that blights hundreds of thousands of Iranians' lives, and wrecks families.
The scale of drug abuse in Iran, which straddles a major smuggling route, is a problem the conservative Islamic state shares with the United States and its other Western foes -- and one that seems to be growing.
"We are very busy here," said nurse Mariam Zahab, preparing small packets of white methadone powder for those waiting for their weekly dose of heroin or opium substitute in the clinic run by the Aftab (sunshine) Society.
"It is a big problem and it is growing, we see it, we experience it," said the middle-aged woman dressed in a loose-fitting hijab, sitting behind a wooden desk in Aftab's spartan premises.
Iran shares a 900-km (560-mile) border with Afghanistan, the world's number one producer of the opium poppy which is the key ingredient for heroin. Opium production there rose by as much as 50 percent last year to supply more than 90 percent of global heroin, according to a United Nations estimate.
One of Aftab's patients said it was now easier to find narcotics in Tehran than alcohol -- also banned in Iran.
"I've used drugs for 18 years -- cannabis, opium and heroin," said Vahid, 35, like others here wary of giving his full name. "It is very cheap."
NUMBERS UP, AGES DOWN
The United Nations' top anti-drugs official in Tehran said an estimated 1.2 to 2 million people from a total population of 70 million in Iran take drugs.
"Iran is experiencing increased pressure from traffickers," said Roberto Arbitrio, representative in Iran of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Thousands of Iranian police have been killed in clashes with heavily armed smugglers since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, but heroin and opium keep flowing across the eastern border.
Experts say availability and affordability -- coupled with a lack of jobs and poor economic prospects for many among Iran's growing young population -- are factors fuelling consumption.
"This is very dangerous; the statistics go up, and the ages go down," said Aftab head Parviz Maleki.
The authorities are signaling determination to crack down, fortifying the remote frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan by building long embankments of rock and earth and digging deep ditches in an attempt to stop the criminal gangs.
"For years ... we have witnessed an increase in drug smuggling," a senior official at the Iranian prosecutor's office, Nasser Seraj, told the Mehr news agency.
As part of another campaign, addicts who do not turn themselves in for voluntary treatment will be rounded up and taken to camps in Tehran and elsewhere, Iranian media reported.
Arbitrio said Iran was stepping up its anti-drugs efforts and had developed relatively advanced strategies for prevention and treatment, a system supported by a network of non-governmental organizations like Aftab.
"POCKET-MONEY TO BUY OPIUM"
Established in 1998, Aftab says it was the first Iranian NGO set up against narcotics use after the revolution 28 years ago. It has several branches in Iran, with volunteers including doctors and psychologists.
It receives funding from Iranian government-run charities and also charges patients what it describes as a small fee which, it says, deters them from relapsing.
Still, the number of people it treats -- over 900 last year -- represents only a fraction of Iranian addicts.
"We've had many successes but, sure, it is not enough," Maleki said.
Hamid, Vahid's younger brother, said a friend of his father gave him drugs for the first time in the early 1990s. "I was 14. I was curious," he said.
"I used pocket-money to buy opium, spending 70,000 rials (about $8) a week," said the fit-looking 29-year-old, his fresh face showing little sign of the abuse.
That amount quickly adds up in a country where a school teacher may earn just $300 a month.
Fear of the future, parental pressure and lack of money led the brothers to quit a few months ago after several failed attempts.
But still they prefer to spend time at Aftab to stay away from temptation on the streets of the Iranian capital. "It was very hard to stop and every day is a struggle," said Vahid.
Doctor Mohammad Ali Shahraki said most of his patients at Aftab were between 15 and 25 years old, many of them using relatively new drugs in Iran such as crack and ecstasy.
"Stigma and guilt make addiction complicated and difficult to fight," he said. "We cannot overcome this problem. Our goal is to reduce the harm and prevent dangerous side effects such as
HIV."
Tue May 22,
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Young Iranians queue for methadone to help end years of drug addiction. Elsewhere in the building, a pale, bearded man lies motionless on a bed, his eyes closed, after starting detoxification.
In the yellow brick building in downtown Tehran, an Iranian non-governmental organization is helping people kick the habit and fighting narcotics abuse that blights hundreds of thousands of Iranians' lives, and wrecks families.
The scale of drug abuse in Iran, which straddles a major smuggling route, is a problem the conservative Islamic state shares with the United States and its other Western foes -- and one that seems to be growing.
"We are very busy here," said nurse Mariam Zahab, preparing small packets of white methadone powder for those waiting for their weekly dose of heroin or opium substitute in the clinic run by the Aftab (sunshine) Society.
"It is a big problem and it is growing, we see it, we experience it," said the middle-aged woman dressed in a loose-fitting hijab, sitting behind a wooden desk in Aftab's spartan premises.
Iran shares a 900-km (560-mile) border with Afghanistan, the world's number one producer of the opium poppy which is the key ingredient for heroin. Opium production there rose by as much as 50 percent last year to supply more than 90 percent of global heroin, according to a United Nations estimate.
One of Aftab's patients said it was now easier to find narcotics in Tehran than alcohol -- also banned in Iran.
"I've used drugs for 18 years -- cannabis, opium and heroin," said Vahid, 35, like others here wary of giving his full name. "It is very cheap."
NUMBERS UP, AGES DOWN
The United Nations' top anti-drugs official in Tehran said an estimated 1.2 to 2 million people from a total population of 70 million in Iran take drugs.
"Iran is experiencing increased pressure from traffickers," said Roberto Arbitrio, representative in Iran of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Thousands of Iranian police have been killed in clashes with heavily armed smugglers since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, but heroin and opium keep flowing across the eastern border.
Experts say availability and affordability -- coupled with a lack of jobs and poor economic prospects for many among Iran's growing young population -- are factors fuelling consumption.
"This is very dangerous; the statistics go up, and the ages go down," said Aftab head Parviz Maleki.
The authorities are signaling determination to crack down, fortifying the remote frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan by building long embankments of rock and earth and digging deep ditches in an attempt to stop the criminal gangs.
"For years ... we have witnessed an increase in drug smuggling," a senior official at the Iranian prosecutor's office, Nasser Seraj, told the Mehr news agency.
As part of another campaign, addicts who do not turn themselves in for voluntary treatment will be rounded up and taken to camps in Tehran and elsewhere, Iranian media reported.
Arbitrio said Iran was stepping up its anti-drugs efforts and had developed relatively advanced strategies for prevention and treatment, a system supported by a network of non-governmental organizations like Aftab.
"POCKET-MONEY TO BUY OPIUM"
Established in 1998, Aftab says it was the first Iranian NGO set up against narcotics use after the revolution 28 years ago. It has several branches in Iran, with volunteers including doctors and psychologists.
It receives funding from Iranian government-run charities and also charges patients what it describes as a small fee which, it says, deters them from relapsing.
Still, the number of people it treats -- over 900 last year -- represents only a fraction of Iranian addicts.
"We've had many successes but, sure, it is not enough," Maleki said.
Hamid, Vahid's younger brother, said a friend of his father gave him drugs for the first time in the early 1990s. "I was 14. I was curious," he said.
"I used pocket-money to buy opium, spending 70,000 rials (about $8) a week," said the fit-looking 29-year-old, his fresh face showing little sign of the abuse.
That amount quickly adds up in a country where a school teacher may earn just $300 a month.
Fear of the future, parental pressure and lack of money led the brothers to quit a few months ago after several failed attempts.
But still they prefer to spend time at Aftab to stay away from temptation on the streets of the Iranian capital. "It was very hard to stop and every day is a struggle," said Vahid.
Doctor Mohammad Ali Shahraki said most of his patients at Aftab were between 15 and 25 years old, many of them using relatively new drugs in Iran such as crack and ecstasy.
"Stigma and guilt make addiction complicated and difficult to fight," he said. "We cannot overcome this problem. Our goal is to reduce the harm and prevent dangerous side effects such as
HIV."
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