DRAFT COUNTRY PROFILE 1999 - 2000

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN 

Topography :

The Islamic Republic of Iran is situated in southwest Asia with an area of 1,648,196 square kilometres, making it the world’s 17^th largest country. In 1998, Iran’s population was estimated to be 60,055,488. Iran is located between 44 05”- 63 18’ East longitude and 25 03’ – 39 47’ North latitude. It is bordered on the north by Turkmenistan, the Caspian Sea, Armenia and Azerbaijan; on the east by Pakistan and Afghanistan; on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and on the west by Turkey and Iraq.

(I) Cultivation, Production and Supply

Opium 

For centuries, Southwest Asia has been involved in the cultivation of opium poppy for local consumption. Iran too had up to 33,000 hectares under cultivation prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979. However, following swift remedial action by the law enforcement bodies, serious attempts were made to totally eradicate opium poppy cultivation in 1980.

The external intervention and subsequent civil war in Afghanistan have only served to hasten drug cultivation and production in the country. According to the UNDCP annual survey, an estimated 90,983 hectares of opium poppy were cultivated during the 1998/99 growing season, with which an estimated 4,581 metric tons of opium were produced.

Multi-ton shipments of opiates enter Iran overland from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most of the opiates smuggled to Iran are smuggled to neighbouring countries for further processing and transportation to Europe and Russia. A significant, but unknown, quantity of these opiates remain in Iran for domestic consumption by an estimated 1 to 2 million addicts and drug abusers.  

(II)   Illicit Drug Trafficking

Land routes across Iran constitute the largest conduit for Southwest Asian opiates en route to European markets. Entering from Afghanistan and Pakistan into eastern Iran, heroin, opium, and morphine are smuggled overland, usually to Turkey but also to Turkmenistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan. They are also smuggled by sea across the Persian Gulf. Iran is surrounded by ethnical and political strife in all directions across its borders. Large minorities within the Islamic Republic correspond to ethnic groups across the borders. In particular, the lack of a sovereign government in Afghanistan has led to it becoming the world’s largest producer and exporter of opium and its derivatives, thus creating enormous human, social and economic costs for Iran in fighting drug traffickers.

Multi-ton shipments of opiates enter Iran from the Golden Crescent (Afghanistan and Pakistan) in trucks or camel narco-caravans, mostly organized and protected by heavily armed Afghans, ethnic Baluch tribesman or otherwise from either side of the frontier. Once inside Iran, large shipments are either concealed within ordinary commercial truck cargo or broken down into smaller sub-shipments for onward transportation to the Persian Gulf and Europe. In this connection, Iranian interdiction efforts have disrupted smuggling convoys sufficiently to cause a tremendous change in smugglers’ tactics emphasizing concealment.

Over nine kilograms of narcotics were seized in searches carried out by the local Law Enforcement Forces of Kish Island in April-June 2000. Kish Island has lately become a strategic point in the transfer of drugs originating from Iran’s eastern neighbours Afghanistan and Pakistan bound for lucrative markets in the Persian Gulf.

(III)     Drug Abuse

It is a fact that Iran is facing drug abuse problems. The government’s recent estimates based on case enumeration using secondary data indicate that about 1.2 million (in a population of 62 million) are regular users or dependant on drugs, mostly opiates and 800,000 occasional abusers who consume 730 tonnes of narcotic drugs per year. These statistics do not count for the cannabis users.

In September 2000, Secretary General of the Society to Combat Addiction, Ms. Soheila Jelodarzadeh announced that based on figures, there are two million addicts in the country.[1] 

This MP from Tehran stated that drug addiction causes human, as well as material loss. Even if every addict spends only 10,000 Rials daily on drugs, over 600 billion Rials of the country’s capital is wasted monthly.

The previously cited RSA shows that drug users are overwhelmingly male (93.4%) with a mean age of 33. Female drug abuse should account for 6.6% only. Female drug users indicated that their drug abuse was picked up from a close family member. For abusers, the average monthly cost of a drug habit is about half of their average monthly income.

In Iran, the most common drugs of abuse are opium and opium residue. Because of its cultural nature, the use of opium is considered less serious than the use of heroin by both the Iranian law and the general public. Accordingly, the 1997 amendment to the Narcotic Law of 1988 provides fines for people caught with small quantities of narcotics (personal use). In addition, the court may recommend the apprehended to undergo treatment and rehabilitation.

In 1998-99, a UNDCP contracted drug abuse Rapid Situation Assessment (RSA) study was carried out in the country in an effort to better assess the nature and extent of the situation. In this study, 73.3% of the drug using cases used opium, 39.4% heroin, 21.9% opium residue, and 12.6% used hashish in the month prior to the interview. 16% of the respondents had also injected in the last month. A real cause for alarm has been the recent emergence of increase in heroin consumption.

The common reasons cited for switching over to injecting are:

a)      opium not giving enough “high”;

b)      opium becoming costly and unavailable;

c)      the availability and affordability of heroin.

According to the Ministry of Health of Iran, more than 70% of Iranians diagnosed as having AIDS are drug addicts, who were infected through intravenous injection. A report released by the State Prison Organization underlining the spreading of AIDS in the country’s prisons calls on the government to take urgent measures to combat it. According to the official statistics, about 90,000 of Iran’s 150,000 prisoners are convicted on drug-related charges.

Drug addiction is a growing problem in Iran. Observers ascribe the Government of Iran’s more aggressive drug policies, at least in part, to concern over burgeoning drug addiction and related crime problems in major Iranian urban centres.

(IV)     Fight Against Illicit Drugs

A.            Internal Level

The highest level policy-making body in drug control matters is the Drug Headquarters (DCHQ), which was established in1989. Supreme Command falls to the President of the country. DCHQ holds responsibility for all regulatory control of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors, and policy in relation to demand reduction initiatives. Direction and guidance is provided by:

-   The Minister of Interior

-   The Prosecutor General

-   The Minister of Health, Treatment and Medical

     Education

-   The Minister of Education

-   The Minister of Intelligence, the Managing Director

     of the I.R. Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)

-   The Commander-in-Chief of the Law Enforcement

     Forces

-   Tehran Head of Court

-   The Head of the Organisation for Prisons and

     Penitentiatries

In 1998, the Mobilisation Force (Basij) also became a member of DCHQ.

The implementation of the policy derivatives of DCHQ at the local level is ensured through the establishment of 28 provincial Anti-Drug Co-ordination Councils, one for each of the administrative provinces of the I.R. of Iran.

In an effective measure, the State Expediency Council adopted a law in 1998, by which all matters relating to the control of drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking were to be concentrated in the Drug Control Headquarters, serving as a National Focal Point.

In July 2000, Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari vowed to step up efforts to restore security in Iran’s eastern borders with Afghanistan, some 100 kilometres of which have already been fenced off and another 200 kilometres protected by electronic devices. Majlis (parliament) has embarked 200 billion Rials in credits to improve security along 950 kilometres of the country’s eastern borders. In mid July 2000, the entire 725 km of Iran’s joint border with Afghanistan in the north-eastern Khorasan was closed down. Thirty thousand law enforcement personnel are deployed in Kerman, Sistan-Baluchestan and south of Khorasan Provinces. From July 2000, special police dogs were deployed in 10 cities across the country to patrol public places. Over 60 tonnes of narcotics were seized in April-June 2000, 80% of them were seized in the eastern provinces, or 13 tonnes increase compared to the same period of the last year.  

Iran claims to have so far invested as much as $800 million in a system of beams, channels, concrete dam constructions, sentry point and observation towers. Partly due to the Afghan Taliban’s unwillingness to fully cooperate on border control and narcotics issues, Iran’s border interdiction efforts have been only partially effective, and large amounts of opiates continue to transit Iran.

A record 174 Iranian police officers were killed last year in encounters with drug traffickers. The total number is now 3000 people, as announced by Said Reza Sarami – Director General of the Office of Statistics of the Anti-Drug Campaign. [2]

B.     International Level

The Islamic Republic of Iran has so far received useful technical assistance in the framework of plans implemented by the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP). In this respect, reference can be made to the four year project called “Norouz”, which means “New Year” in Farsi. The project is budgeted at $12,701,200 by UNDCP, and supported by Iran at the level of US$120 million annually.

In January 2000, Iran hosted the First International Conference of Drug Liaison Officers, which was attended by representatives of regional and European countries, as well as Canada and Australia. The conference agreed to establish a regional Information Exchange Centre in Tehran under the supervision of DCHQ of Iran. The Second International Conference of Drug Liaison Officers held in Tehran in September 2000, agreed on the institutionalisation of DLO Conference and decided to set up the DLO Conference Organizing Committee, comprising Drug Control Headquarters of the I.R. of Iran, Anti-Narcotic Force (ANF) of the I.R. of Pakistan, UNDCP Office in Tehran and the Chairmen of DLOs in Pakistan and Turkey.

In March 2000, the Iranian permanent envoy to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (UNCND) was elected by a large majority to chair the Commission for a one-year term. Under this able chairmanship, the Commission developed a reporting and evaluation program to follow up on commitments made at the 1998 UNGA Special Session on Drugs. Iran also works through the UN’s “Six plus Two” process in Afghanistan.

Undoubtedly, one of the most effective tools in drug control is bi/multilateral cooperation among countries. The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has signed several MOUs with Qatar, Italy, Turkey, India, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and a quadrilateral MOU between Iran, Georgia, Armenia and UNDCP.

At present, the government is negotiating to finalize MOUs with several other countries, particularly the littoral states of the Persian Gulf such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, as well as other countries including the United Kingdom, Venezuela, Ukraine, Jordan etc. A draft tripartite with Italy and UNDCP  has also been prepared.

(V)      Treatment and Rehabilitation

Preliminary results of the UNDCP RSA study, undertaken in ten major urban sites of the country, corroborate a high prevalence of drug abuse. 

Under the Norouz Project, the Government of Iran will spend more than US$68 million this year for demand reduction and community awareness.

In the last two years, the State Welfare Organisation has established 65 out-patient centres, offering services for the treatment of addicts. There is on average one centre in each province, but in large cities like Tehran, the number reaches two or more. Narcotics anonymous and other self-help programs can be found in almost all provinces.

(VI)     Miscellaneous: Drug Seizures (kg)

Sources/publications used in preparing this profile:

1. The National Drug Control  Report 1999, Islamic Republic of Iran.

2.  I.R. of Iran Drug Control Headquarters Newsletter, Volume 1-No. 3, May – June 2000.

3.  Drug Control Headquarters Newsletter, Volume 1-No. 1, January - February   2000.

4. Summary Record of the ECO-DCCU Task Force Meetings. Tehran, 26 – 28 February 2000.

5.  The U.S. State Department Annual Report on Narcotics, March 2000.   

6.   The ECO Guide Book, The Economic Cooperation Organization.                                       

     5. UN ODCCP. Global Illicit Crops Monitoring  Programme. Vienna,

         January 2000.

     7. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report for  1999.

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