Iran’s tough drug policy, which includes capital punishment for smugglers, jail terms for dealers and addicts and heavy TV and radio anti-drug propaganda appears to have failed to reduce the number of addicts or stem the flow of heroin and opium into the country. July 11, 2004- “Iran has tried almost everything in its war on drugs: digging huge trenches along its porous borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan and even using helicopter guns hips and tanks against well-armed traffickers, but the tough policy appears to be failing,” the Agence France Presse reports in a dispatch from Tehran.
The state TV monopoly bombards people with ads and programs highlighting the ills of addiction. The court sentence dealers and smugglers to prison and users risk imprisonment and lashes. But the official number of addicts remains at 2 million level, with 200,000 injecting.
Lower price of heroin encourages users to switch from opium to heroin, AFP reports, adding that as a result of rising HIV and hepatitis B epidemic, Iran has been undergoing a quiet revolution in its attitude to addiction. Non-governmental organizations such as Persepolis have stared drop-in centers for addicts in Tehran’s poor neighborhoods, providing them with clean needles and methadone programs.
“We get around 100 addicts a day. After they register, they receive breakfast, warm food, shampoo, methadone and a special drug-use package,” says the center’s manager Abdolrazaq Ruhi.
“We get around 100 addicts a day. After they register, they receive breakfast, warm food, shampoo, methadone and a special drug-use package,” says the center’s manager Abdolrazaq Ruhi.
Blood tests and even hospitalization are also on offer in the ”harm reduction” effort - something the center backs up with counseling as a first step toward kicking the habit.
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