Pubdate: Thu, 27 Oct 2005
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Robert Tait, in Tehran
Cited: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime http://www.unodc.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Iran
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

IRAN FACES UP TO ITS MOST LETHAL THREAT - DRUGS

One in 17 People Are Addicted, but Groups Such As Narcotics Anonymous 
Are Fighting Back

The longed for pilgrimage to Mecca should have been enough to give 
Hasan, a devout Muslim, a spiritual high. But even while paying 
homage to the Prophet Muhammad, he needed a little help from a 
friend. "When I went on the haj, I put a lump of opium inside my 
walking stick," he says, clicking open the fold-up device to show how 
he concealed the contraband. "I went abroad like that many times, to 
Mecca, Turkey and elsewhere. I was carrying the best quality opium. I 
was financially well-off, so I could afford it."

The drug-hazed trip to Islam's holiest shrine was the moral nadir of 
Hasan's 30-year battle with addiction, which, he says, left him 
socially stigmatised and emotionally alienated from his wife and 
sons. The physical signs of a titanic internal struggle against his 
need to take opium five times a day are manifest in the tell-tale 
bulbous black bags beneath his eyes.

But now he has found redemption. Aged 80, he is the oldest living 
success story of Narcotics Anonymous, a rapidly growing grassroots 
movement confronting Iran's addiction level - an epidemic defined by 
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) statistics as the 
worst in the world - through a nationwide network of open-air 
counselling sessions.

According to the UNODC, more than 4 million of Iran's 70 million 
people are addicted to drugs, and the addiction cuts across 
educational, class, age and economic barriers. Middle-aged 
professionals and academics are as vulnerable as under-educated, 
socially deprived teenagers, say experts.

Through a cathartic blend of advice, prayers and no-holds-barred 
confessionals, Narcotics Anonymous is offering an escape. Every night 
at 10pm, thousands of recovering addicts meet in public parks 
throughout Iran to exchange tales of shared agonies. Bonding them is 
the determination never again to yield to the tyranny of addiction, a 
goal attainable, according to the group's dictum, only through total 
abstinence.

Gathered in a semi-circle under a moonless night sky, the 40 or so 
men in Tehran's Barzegar park could have been mistaken for a group of 
amateur star-gazers. But the impassioned speeches, random hugging and 
spontaneous outbreaks of applause attested to the earthly nature of 
their concerns.

In this meeting, one of the nightly gathering's most seasoned 
participants stood up and recounted how he conquered his addiction. 
He told his fellow-gatherers they could only achieve the same if they 
admitted their sins before God. The gathering then joined in a 
"comfort prayer", asking for the strength to overcome their drug 
habits. Established members, deemed to be "clean", were then assigned 
as spiritual counsellors to recruits seeking a cure.

Hasan, who owns a laundry business in Tehran, discovered the sessions 
through his driver, an opium addict. Having cleaned up his act, Hasan 
is now a mentor to the afflicted. "I have cleaned up this entire 
commercial neighbourhood," he says, gesturing to the street. "The 
owners of nearly all the shops round here, the housing agency, the 
baker, the butcher, the florist, were addicts until I took them to 
the meetings. As the oldest member, I am an inspiration for other addicts."

Hossein, a 50-year-old doctor who has now recovered from a 12-year 
heroin addiction, was persuaded to attend following two months' jail 
for possession. "I had hit rock bottom. When I first went to the 
meetings, I remember it was hard to admit my addiction and express 
myself. I was scared. Now, I get drug addicts coming to me for 
prescriptions for morphine, opium or tranquillisers. I only write the 
prescriptions on condition that they go to the sessions."

Sheer necessity has dictated that sessions be held outside; demand 
for Narcotics Anonymous meetings has far outstripped available 
accommodation since the group began organising in Iran in the 
mid-1990s. With membership now above 30,000, the group holds 2,200 
weekly meetings, the vast majority outdoors, in 183 Iranian towns and cities.

Meeting outside has led to some up-lifting human triumphs. In 
Mashhad, in north-east Iran, a man who had been sleeping in a park 
was drawn to the large gathering nearby and eventually joined up. He 
had been one of Iran's leading architects but had lost his status 
through drug addiction. Through the meetings, he recovered and 
eventually returned to his former professional life.

The group has encountered tolerance from officials. "When the police 
come across our outdoor meetings, they leave us alone," said Siyamak, 
47, now one of Narcotics Anonymous' leading Iranian organisers after 
kicking his heroin addiction. "Normally, mass public gatherings in 
Iran would be seen as political and a threat. It shows they respect us."

Equally unlikely liberal traits are apparent in other facets of 
Iran's response to its drugs crisis. These include officially 
approved needle exchange programmes to prevent the spread of Aids, 
prescription of the heroin substitute methadone, and the distribution 
of condoms to promote safe sex. It is a marked departure from the 
previous approach, when addicts were incarcerated in often inhumane 
conditions in so-called rehabilitation centres.

"They have reached the stage where they can no longer have a hostile 
reaction to this phenomenon," said Behrouz Meshkini, a consultant on 
drug addiction, instrumental in introducing Narcotics Anonymous to 
Iran. "It is a recognition that the approach of arresting addicts and 
putting them in jail has failed. The key to Narcotics Anonymous' 
success is its independence. It is the only truly independent NGO in Iran."

Iran is being overwhelmed by a pincer movement of drugs flowing in 
through its eastern and western borders, as well as its southern sea 
ports. Enormous quantities of opium and heroin are smuggled from the 
east - Afghanistan, Pakistan and former Soviet republics such as 
Turkmenistan. Compounding this is an influx of hallucinogenic and 
chemical-based drugs, such as ecstasy, from Turkey and through the 
Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, more than 2.6 million Iranians 
have been arrested on drug offences. Almost half the prison 
population is serving time for narcotic-related crimes. Iran's police 
and security forces have been fighting a losing war against the 
smugglers. In 2003, the country's anti-drug forces seized 220 tonnes 
of drugs, reckoned by the UN to be just a fraction of the amount 
entering the country. Since the revolution, about 3,200 members of 
the security forces have been killed in clashes with traffickers.

For this grim landscape of addiction, the regime has found a 
convenient scapegoat: the US, Britain and other western countries 
with forces in Afghanistan, are blamed for failing to stamp out opium 
and heroin production there. Independent experts see it differently. 
"We have a traditionally positive attitude in Iran towards opium," 
says Mr Meshkini. "But the main problem is the sense of depression 
and disappointment that exists, especially among the youth. A young 
Iranian is under much more pressure than a young man in, say, 
Austria, Switzerland or England. Young people here have obstacles to 
education, finding jobs or getting married."

The Damage Done

Iran has the highest rate of heroin and opium addiction per head of 
population in the world, according to the UN: one in 17 is a regular 
user and 20% of the Iranian population aged 15-60 is involved in drug abuse

There are an estimated 500,000 drug dealers in Iran, circulating 
narcotics with an estimated street value of UKP1.7bn to UKP2.83bn

Drug abuse is the main factor behind 60% of divorces in Iran, 
according to a survey

Official government figures estimate that illegal drugs cost the 
Iranian economy UKP630m in 2004

More than 3,200 Iranian law enforcers have been killed in clashes 
with drug traffickers since 1979. In 2003, officers seized 220 tonnes 
of drugs, up 54% on the previous year. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake