ID :
107280
Thu, 02/18/2010 - 17:07
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https://oananews.org//node/107280
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Grappling with the menace of drugs
TEHRAN, Feb. 18 (MNA) - A glance at drug history in Iran is a good starting point when analyzing drug addiction and the problems associated with it.
According to the excavations carried out by the archaeologists, baked mud inscriptions belonging to 5000 B.C. reveal that the Summers were among the first to be familiar with opium and its medical treatment.
On the contrary, drug has a shorter historical background in Iran and historians attribute it to the Arab invasion around 1400 years ago and some Arab researchers confirm that drugs reached Iran through the Arabs. In ancient Persia documents, there is no trace of opium or any other drugs as some historians believe.
Meanwhile, some other historians express the view that drug usage was first introduced by Moguls. Others opine that the famous Iranian warrior king, Nader Shah Afshar, brought it from India.
But what is quite evident, Avicenna and Zakariya Razi are among the great Iranian physicians who knew medical qualities of opium and categorized it as a herbal drug.
In the Saffavid era, Britain urged the cultivation of opium in Iran. But drug abuse practiced in its real sense entered politics in the Qajar period where 18 provinces put aside wheat production and Iranian farmers cultivated poppy and opium became one of the most important export items. At that time, the Qajar rulers considered it as a cash crop and could not predict its disastrous consequences.
Today, drug scourge is among one of the outstanding crises in the world – where the lucrative business is second only to arms sales.
Iran’s geographical location -– being situated near the neighboring eastern and southeastern countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan -– provides the nearest transit route to Europe, littoral states of the Persian Gulf and other destinations in the Middle East and Africa.
Poppy cultivation and drug trade have adverse negative impact on economy of the neighboring countries in the region. The Islamic Republic has had its share of socio-economic consequences of drug abuse in the last three decades, particularly in recent years.
Hundreds of Iranian security forces have also been martyred in the war against drug traffickers over these years. Between 1979 and 2006 about 3,600 Iranian police officers were martyred in Iran’s war on drugs.
Facts and figures
According to figures released by Iran’s Anti-Narcotic Drugs Headquarters of Presidential Office published in some newspapers, in 2004 three percent of the world population, or in other words 185 million, were addicted to narcotic drugs.
According to the United Nations, currently 200,000 families in Afghanistan, which supplies 90 percent of the world’s opium, are involved in poppy cultivation.
The statistics show that in 1990 there were 500,000 addicts in Iran. This figure exceeded to three million people after several years. These figures were released by the Ministry of Health and confirmed by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC).
The studies carried out in Iran show an estimated annual growth of eight percent in the number of addicts. The figure for 2002 was 4,307,000 and as the Islamic Republic’s population will reach 100 million in 2020 this number would reach beyond 17 million.
Pundits agree that a great deal of the illicit drugs come from Afghanistan through Pakistan, entering southeastern Iran.
UNODC in a report said that drug traffickers travel in armed convoys, and the routes are sometimes controlled by local warlords.
“It is not just the opiates -– heroin, morphine, opium -- that stem from Afghanistan. Synthetic drugs, like methamphetamines, ecstasy, LSD and amphetamines, are also becoming more and more common in Iran,” said one senior Iranian drug expert who declined to be identified.
These synthetics first entered the country around 2003.
Drug addiction and treatment
Despite enforcement measures taken by the government why drug trafficking and addiction has been on the rise in Iranian society?
It seems that approaches in the anti-drug campaign - including detaining drug traffickers, providing medical services, which keep addicts in abstention - has not been very effective.
During this period, we have always exerted force to eradicate this menace while relying only on disciplinary forces is not sufficient. Other activities should have been carried out to curb the drug problem.
Preventive measures, such as raising public awareness through media and education can prove to be vital.
Awareness on the country’s drug problems should start at a very young age, and schools and other educational institutions should get involved. Counseling should be easily accessible for family members of drug addicts.
Although police enforcement is a necessary measure, but by itself it is not sufficient to eradicate the menace of drugs.
(By Ali Asghar Pahlavan)
According to the excavations carried out by the archaeologists, baked mud inscriptions belonging to 5000 B.C. reveal that the Summers were among the first to be familiar with opium and its medical treatment.
On the contrary, drug has a shorter historical background in Iran and historians attribute it to the Arab invasion around 1400 years ago and some Arab researchers confirm that drugs reached Iran through the Arabs. In ancient Persia documents, there is no trace of opium or any other drugs as some historians believe.
Meanwhile, some other historians express the view that drug usage was first introduced by Moguls. Others opine that the famous Iranian warrior king, Nader Shah Afshar, brought it from India.
But what is quite evident, Avicenna and Zakariya Razi are among the great Iranian physicians who knew medical qualities of opium and categorized it as a herbal drug.
In the Saffavid era, Britain urged the cultivation of opium in Iran. But drug abuse practiced in its real sense entered politics in the Qajar period where 18 provinces put aside wheat production and Iranian farmers cultivated poppy and opium became one of the most important export items. At that time, the Qajar rulers considered it as a cash crop and could not predict its disastrous consequences.
Today, drug scourge is among one of the outstanding crises in the world – where the lucrative business is second only to arms sales.
Iran’s geographical location -– being situated near the neighboring eastern and southeastern countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan -– provides the nearest transit route to Europe, littoral states of the Persian Gulf and other destinations in the Middle East and Africa.
Poppy cultivation and drug trade have adverse negative impact on economy of the neighboring countries in the region. The Islamic Republic has had its share of socio-economic consequences of drug abuse in the last three decades, particularly in recent years.
Hundreds of Iranian security forces have also been martyred in the war against drug traffickers over these years. Between 1979 and 2006 about 3,600 Iranian police officers were martyred in Iran’s war on drugs.
Facts and figures
According to figures released by Iran’s Anti-Narcotic Drugs Headquarters of Presidential Office published in some newspapers, in 2004 three percent of the world population, or in other words 185 million, were addicted to narcotic drugs.
According to the United Nations, currently 200,000 families in Afghanistan, which supplies 90 percent of the world’s opium, are involved in poppy cultivation.
The statistics show that in 1990 there were 500,000 addicts in Iran. This figure exceeded to three million people after several years. These figures were released by the Ministry of Health and confirmed by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC).
The studies carried out in Iran show an estimated annual growth of eight percent in the number of addicts. The figure for 2002 was 4,307,000 and as the Islamic Republic’s population will reach 100 million in 2020 this number would reach beyond 17 million.
Pundits agree that a great deal of the illicit drugs come from Afghanistan through Pakistan, entering southeastern Iran.
UNODC in a report said that drug traffickers travel in armed convoys, and the routes are sometimes controlled by local warlords.
“It is not just the opiates -– heroin, morphine, opium -- that stem from Afghanistan. Synthetic drugs, like methamphetamines, ecstasy, LSD and amphetamines, are also becoming more and more common in Iran,” said one senior Iranian drug expert who declined to be identified.
These synthetics first entered the country around 2003.
Drug addiction and treatment
Despite enforcement measures taken by the government why drug trafficking and addiction has been on the rise in Iranian society?
It seems that approaches in the anti-drug campaign - including detaining drug traffickers, providing medical services, which keep addicts in abstention - has not been very effective.
During this period, we have always exerted force to eradicate this menace while relying only on disciplinary forces is not sufficient. Other activities should have been carried out to curb the drug problem.
Preventive measures, such as raising public awareness through media and education can prove to be vital.
Awareness on the country’s drug problems should start at a very young age, and schools and other educational institutions should get involved. Counseling should be easily accessible for family members of drug addicts.
Although police enforcement is a necessary measure, but by itself it is not sufficient to eradicate the menace of drugs.
(By Ali Asghar Pahlavan)
