IRAN'S INCREASING DRUGS PROBLEM

Khamenei Smoking opium



Afghan opium trade booming: US

The US State Department has issued a new report which says that last year, Afghanistan grew more opium poppies than ever before and was responsible for 93 per cent of the world supply.The report urged the Afghan Government to take action, saying that the drugs trade deters progress towards a stable, economically independent democracy.It said that hardline Taliban insurgents benefit with growers and traffickers exchanging money and guns for Taliban-sponsored protection.State Department official David Johnson says the Taliban is reaping the gains of the trade."There's incontrovertible evidence that the Taliban used drug trafficking proceeds to fund insurgent activities," he said."Poppy production soared in the southern provinces where the insurgency is strong."At the same time, poppy cultivation has declined in the poor but more secure northern and central provinces."The report also revealed that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had considered limited aerial spraying of opium crops last year but opted not to do it.It was acknowledged that this action would have been extremely dangerous and unpopular.

IRAN'S INCREASING DRUGS PROBLEM
[Tehran] Ten years ago, calculating the number of drug users in Iran was pure guesswork. These days it is rather more scientific, and the veil is being drawn aside from a social ill hidden for decades by conservative governments. Today, new statistics are endorsed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
In 1999, the UNODC was launched in Iran and together with the Iranian administration started releasing more realistic figures. It is now accepted by both parties that Iran has roughly 1.2 million regular users and around 800,000 periodic users throughout its cities and provinces. Depending on who you are talking to, the numbers still vary. The initial survey started alarm bells ringing in government circles as results suggested an epidemiology within Iran's borders, with new trends developing across all spectrums of society, and a shift from opiate-based drugs to synthetic ones. A local NGO, the Center for Human Regeneration, helps people suffering from opium addiction. One of its rehabilitation facilities it has helped 7,000 people so far, and it has six more facilities in Iran. Its founder is a former addict who, during one Ramadan month, eventually kicked his habit after realizing that he could cure himself by lowering his opium intake gradually. This is a view that former addicts turned counselors share. One of them is Mehrdad, who entered the Center looking for help, and now helps others to clean up. “Treatment at the Center takes Iran’s specific drug problem into account. Cold turkey doesn't work here. We use opium in our rehab process rather than methadone. People addicted to opium are addicted to 12 alkaloids rather than the one in methadone.” Pressed for further information, Mehrdad explains, “Methadone users still experience pain and even sexual dysfunction, which causes them to relapse. Opium is natural and can be used to battle addiction and pain, all counselors here are former addicts and must pass a test to be able to sit where I am now.”One of the more controversial aspects of this treatment plan is that it allows addicts to buy their own opium. “We give them scales and tell them how much they can use in a day, the patients keep the drug themselves and we have an agreement with the police whereby they won’t get arrested if they are caught while receiving treatment with us. Each month we tell them to reduce their consumption by 20 percent. The onus is on the addict to take responsibility as we can only help those who want to help themselves.” The center also offers addicts different ways to express themselves while in therapy. One is through sport and 12 different sports are provided. Soccer, rugby, volleyball, and darts are all on the menu, but the most successful venture is archery. Two former male addicts and one female now represent Iran at international level and may be sent to the Beijing Olympics. The center also operates a needle exchange. The experience that counselors pass on is invaluable for those in rehab and with a relapse rate around 12%, something is clearly working. It can be compared to a 2004 report by Shiraz University which then showed a relapse rate of anywhere between 60 and 80%, depending on where the addict was treated. One American rehab center suggests a similar figure of 16%.Mehrdad explains, “Rehab is revolutionary in Iran, ten years ago admitting the problem existed would have got you imprisoned or shot. [The government] listened to outside advice because they were afraid of a spectacular health crisis, we have had army generals and government officials come through our doors.” Consumption in Iran is not just limited to the poor. Center staff deal with a large cross-section of the community. But what has caused the increase in numbers? Mehrdad pauses before he answers, “At the lower end of society, the problem is poverty driven; at the high end, it's boredom. Or pleasure seeking.” The Iranian authorities seize an estimated three to four hundred tons of narcotics every year. This is hardly surprising since Afghanistan shares a 750-mile eastern border with the Islamic Republic and some 93% of the world’s opium is grown in Afghanistan. Iran is caught in the unenviable position of being a key trafficking route to Europe and the Western markets for narcotics consumption. Rumor has it that drug seizures by government drug agencies follow tip offs by organized gangs, who then are allowed to run larger quantities of narcotics through Tehran and into Europe. Although such claims cannot be verified, the country's present failure to deal with domestic corruption issues allegedly surrounding many government institutions (confirmed by ‘Ali Hashemi, when head of the Drugs Control Headquarters in 2005 — he admitted that a few Iranian officials had been involved in trafficking) may be a sign it is true. Iran supports the international anti-corruption convention, but has yet to ratify the agreement. As more money is diverted towards intercepting shipments of narcotics, it is no surprise that Iran is the leading country in the world for drugs seizures. This point is not lost on UNODC representative, Roberto Arbitrio, who has been in working in Iran for the past four years. Aribtrio is well versed in the region’s drug problems and praises work being done by the government. “Iran is a country that is already working in the area of drug control and is considered in the region as one of the most effective. Iran has built an excellent protection system along the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan over the main trafficking routes. It is a unique example in the region, so they are doing good work. What we as UNODC do is assist them in developing software capacity. In border control, what's needed is cross-border cooperation and that is where the U.N. can facilitate in making sure Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan coordinate action.”With Iran spending more resources on fighting organized crime, why is the drug problem spreading? Arbitrio’s answer involves Afghanistan like much of Iran's narcotics. “Opium use is common to many cultures in this region as a pain killer and sometimes it is used for recreational purposes. Over the past 15 years, opium production in Afghanistan has become an industrialized industry feeding Western markets. As a result of passing trade, the region became a consumer…Afghanistan now has over 1 million users. In turn, they've become a major market producing and consuming narcotics. There is a knock on effect in places like Iran, Pakistan, and other central Asian countries.” So it is all to do with the scale of production? “Yes, and the business needs of traffickers means they create local markets. Where you have trafficking you also have an increasing problem of organized crime and terrorism. There is now a clear link between trafficking of narcotics and specific manifestations of terrorism.” One cause for concern for UNODC and the Iranian authorities is the rise in number of people using heroin-based ‘crack’. “It's different from the crack used in the U.S. and Europe, which is cocaine-based, here it is heroin-based and we are still not entirely sure of its composition. UNODC with some government agencies are conducting a study on the drug. All we know is its impact is completely devastating, we have seen the terrible effects of this substance on people, and it's becoming more widespread, as is injecting heroin, and that's across the whole spectrum of society.”Heroin-based crack is causing much concern among ordinary Iranians. State television recently showed videos of suffering addicts to try to raise awareness. The government is trying to quell the local markets and its efforts are managed by the Drug Control Headquarters (DCH), whose remit is to develop, coordinate, and implement all local and national drug control policies. The DCH represents several ministries, including health, and controls the interior ministry and anti-narcotics police. The organization is led by a secretary general who is appointed directly by the president and answerable to him. The UNODC deals directly with this body, which it uses to circulate information to the NGOs. Arbitrio is enthusiastic about the diverse nature of the NGOs, “We work with 100 to 150 centers specializing in treatment and prevention and issues like curbing HIV. These problems are widespread in Iran and we are helping to improve the capability that's already set up and lend our expertise.” Why are NGOs effective in policy implementation? “They use a lot of different approaches. There is treatment through methadone, which moves users from heroin, and they also give psychological religious counseling.” Arbitrio also praised the religious counseling offered by the Rebirth Foundation. The foundation works in communities developing ways to help addicts cope and recover from drug abuse. It gained official recognition in 2005 when it won the U.N.’s Vienna Civil Society award, an honor bestowed to only one or two NGOs throughout the world each year. NGOs not only work with members of the public. One or two offer medical support to prisons inmates nationwide, trying to prevent the spread of HIV/ AIDS in the country.The UNODC representative believes the Iranian authorities are doing all they can to tackle the drug problem and applauds them for inviting missions from the Far East, Pakistan, and countries neighboring the Islamic Republic to demonstrate what is being done to reduce drug abuse and treat addicts. There is still more to be done, says Arbitrio, “We encourage all parties to come together and boost the status of bi-lateral cooperation. I must say the level of assistance provided bi-laterally is limited because the opportunities of cooperation between Iran and the international community are limited... the UN is the main provider of assistance, our current budget is a most $8-9 million over three years. This is quite a limited amount of money for a country with a problem like this. Drug control should be viewed as a non-political area for cooperation, because it's a destabilizing factor for all of us—for everybody in the international community.”

Iran's addicts fall victim to geography (and Islam)
von Anna Fifield (Tehran)

Iran shares a long border with Afghanistan, which produces 90 per cent of the world's opium, and as much as half of that is smuggled through Iran. The country's proximity to the world's biggest opium producer has led an estimated 5m into narcotics. Three years ago things could hardly have been worse for Ali-Reza Fatehi. His family had disowned him, he had lost his profitable business selling socks in the Tehran bazaar and his television set was his only
friend. When he was not watching television he was rifling through rubbish bins to collect plastic that he could sell on to recycling companies. "It was a very degrading job and completely out of character for me," says Mr Fatehi, looking down at his stained shaking hands through dark-ringed eyes. "But at the time I was doing crack and heroin and I wasn't myself."
Explosion in opium production since US-led invasion
Officially there are 1m drug addicts in Iran but international health workers estimate that the figure is much closer to 5m, in a country of 70m people. While much is known about the problem in neighbouring Afghanistan, and particularly about the explosion in opium production since the US-led invasion seven years ago, Iran's significant drug challenge is below the radar. But Iran shares a long border with Afghanistan, which produces 90 per cent of the world's opium, and as much as half of that is smuggled through Iran, partly for export and partly for consumption by people such as Mr Fatehi. Only a handful of stations can treat drug users in IranIran's addicts spend $3bn - the equivalent of 15 per cent of Iran's annual oil income - on drugs each year and their problem has led to a multitude of social ills, including an increase in HIV infections. There are about 70,000 HIV/Aids sufferers in Iran, about 60 per cent of whom were infected by sharing needles. But just as Iran is a victim of its geography, Mr Fatehi, 37, was in some ways a victim of his success. "I dropped out of school and started selling socks and stockings," he says at the Persepolis centre, a non-governmental treatment centre in southern Tehran where he goes every day for methadone, an opiate-replacement therapy. "I was making very good money so I hired someone to run the business for me. I had a lot of free time to go to my friends' houses and have fun, but one of them introduced me to opium." He progressed to heroin, crack cocaine and crystal meth and was an addict for more than a decade, until he finally sought help three years ago. "Physically I'm clean now but mentally I'm not. I can't imagine not having any substances in my life," he says. "But this medicine has helped me a lot." The Persepolis centre is one of a handful of pioneering institutions that treats drug users. It focuses on harm reduction - giving fresh syringes and condoms to addicts - and provides methadone to about 250 people a day, a fifth of whom are women.
Spread of HIV and AIDS
"Many addicts catch other diseases such as HIV or hepatitis so we teach them how to inject cleanly and to uphold healthy practices," says Gaila Darvishany, one of the centre's managers. Volunteer workers dole out plastic cups of methadone and change the dressings on the wounds of crack users who have accidentally burnt themselves. Iran is a natural bridge between Afghanistan and Europe - ideal for smugglingThe government is trying to stem the flow of drugs into the country, a struggle that has led to the killing of more than 4,000 police officers in the course of drug control operations since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Iran has built what Roberto Arbitrio, the head of the United Nations office on drugs and crime in Tehran, calls an "Iranian Great Wall" of ditches and fences along the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Heroin trafficking on a huge scale
"Iran is a natural bridge between Afghanistan and the 'Balkan route' to Europe. Plus, to the north there is the Caspian Sea and the Russian market, and to the south is the Gulf, increasingly a route for hashish," Mr Arbitrio says. "But this is not a situation where you've got a guy coming across the border with a suitcase containing 1kg of heroin," Mr Arbitrio says. Traffickers in 4WDs carry Kalashnikov machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, travelling "like an army" and using guerrilla warfare, he says. After waging waging his own struggle, Mr Fatehi - who has now found himself a cleaner line of work, selling cigarettes from a sack on the pavement - has modest ambitions for the future. "My life has already got a lot better," he says. "But now I'd like to get married and have kids. I'd like my mother to come and visit me more. I'd like for my dad to accept me. I'd like to be myself again."

Crossfire War - Taliban in Afghanistan Prepares Three Pronged Attack on Kabul

WARDAK PROVINCE - The South Asia Daily News Scan, of retired India Brigadier Rahul Bhonsle, referred today to an investigation by Asia Times Online on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan as NATO continues to counter more Taliban-al-Qaeda forces than Brussels ever projected.

Neither the Taliban or al-Qaeda could exist without Tehran's active support.

For the Brussels based alliance Afghanistan was supposed to be NATO's grand power projection beyond Europe as it trained the new Afghan army to replace the Taliban who were initially defeated in 2001. But Tehran stated late that year it found some of the Taliban useful so Iran waited for NATO to commit more forces there as Iran knew it could use Afghanistan to keep the West busy on a wasteland front whose main raw material and contribution to the international economy is opium. NATO's showcase front has become a smaller version of the trap in Iraq as Brussels and the West want to do anything except attack the center of international terrorism and the biggest threat to the West-Iran. [SASTSCAN] This is one of the best examples in modern history of the power of illusory thinking in governments decision making process and it revolves around the West's fear of confronting a more powerful enemy than they ever believed would emerge as a result of the 1979 Khomeini revolution in Iran which he launched while he was based in a Paris suburb. Industrial services along Boulevard Haussmann and the West assumed Khomeini's influence would not reach beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus which would provide Moscow with another reason to continue its historical expansion (invasion) south and re-occupy Iran as they did with the British in World War II. With Iran's oil resources under a communist economy it would reduce the price of Iran's oil exports to the West but they had no idea Khomeini's beliefs would impact the Arab world even after his death in 1989 nor was the massive military support Beijing provided Iran-Pakistan anticipated either. Beijing did so knowing if Tehran-Islamabad were successful three of China's international rivals would become weaker, the West-India-Russia. So China provided Iran-Pakistan with the foundation of their nuclear-ballistic missile programs which Beijing could also send through North Korea.
In the meantime enter the Taliban emerging in 1996 from radical religious schools on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, refugees inspired by an extreme interpretation of the Quran and hatred of the West as it replaced the Soviet occupation of the country which invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to outflank China. Iran matched its support of the Taliban based on the level of military commitment by NATO just enough to force Brussels, obsessed with making a success it could be proud of, to continue to deploy more forces as the occupation and NATO's training programs were under attack. The alliance became increasingly uncomfortable since it never wanted any heavy combat anywhere. I believe it was NATO's General James Jones who commented about five years ago when the Taliban re-emerged, that asking NATO governments to send more troops to Afghanistan was like passing the hat.The fighting in the country became heavier two years ago as Tehran was completing its final preparations for (f)allout war, 2006 being the year Iran conducted military maneuvers almost all that year. That same year the Taliban were able to take control of the Taghab valley, northeast of the capital Kabul and the Nasayab valley south of the capital but were unable to hold them for more than a few months. According to the latest reports the Taliban are prepared to re-enter both areas more heavily equipped, supplied and with more units than before, by establishing a network of bases from the Pakistan border to the capital. The network runs from the Mohamand and Bajaur agency in Pakistan through Kunar-Nooristan provinces in Afghanistan to the Taghap valley in Kapisa province just 60 miles (100 km) northeast of Kabul. It is a three pronged strategy that has enabled the Taliban to operate freely in Wardak province just 18 miles (30 km) east of Kabul. The Taliban are believed to have 18,000 fighters in Mohamand and between 20-25,000 in Bajaur and if they are kept supplied it would enable them to maintain an offensive from April to September in an area just a few miles from Washington's airbase in Kunar.NATO is frantically trying to piece together an offensive for next month to disrupt the Taliban's preparations but not only is the alliance increasingly reluctant to sustain any losses Brussels is also depending on sincere support from Islamabad. Pakistan only provided token support for Washington's mythological war on terror as it pursued the phantom Bin Laden a video decoy. Islamabad did so in order to receive an enormous amount of aid and a resumption of F-16 fighter's sales which can carry a nuclear bomb. Pakistan's latest excuse for not participating in more than a few sorties is the unstable political situation in the country which President General Pervez Musharraf encourages as a strategic domestic smokescreen.Khan Yunis - Some power in Israel's port city Ashkelon was knocked out by Qassam rocket fire as Palestinians fired 45 rockets and dozens of mortar shells between 3 pm - 7:30 pm Wednesday after Israel killed five Hamas militant trainers near Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. This is the largest daily total since Qassam fire began eight years ago and is one of many signs the war in the region is about to expand. Haaretz reports according to Israeli intelligence, Shin Bet, said the severity of the rocket attack response reflected the importance of the militants who were killed. The action started Wednesday morning as five Hamas militants, trained in Iran-Syria, were killed when an air strike hit their minivan. Israel conducted another air strike in northern Gaza and Israeli commandos encountered some armed Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus. [HAARETZ]
Jerusalem has stated it is only their operations in the West Bank that keep Hamas from controlling the territory.