Pubdate: Fri, 12 May 2000 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 2000 San Francisco Chronicle Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/ Author: Lewis Dolinsky Note: Article part of "Notes From Here And There" section THE REAL WAR ON DRUGS The heroin-opium trade goes from Afghanistan through Iran to Turkey and Europe. Iran is trying to stop the stuff at the Afghan border with 30,000 troops and police. Also walls, trenches and barbed wire. John Daniszewski of the Los Angeles Times reports that in 15 years, 2,500 Iranians have died fighting drugs. The United Nations says 90 percent of all opium confiscated worldwide is seized in Iran, then destroyed. But as Daniszewski points out, few Westerners know this story or remember that before the 1979 revolution, Iran was a major supplier of heroin. Now, it produces almost none. Iranians consider stopping the drug trade a moral duty but also self-interest; the epidemic infects their people, too. Smugglers have a new strategy: They get camels addicted and teach them where to go in Iran, carrying their cargo, for their next fix. No chaperone is required. - --- MAP posted-by: Greg