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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran's war with soaring drug addiction |
| 2004-10-26 |
| AMIR Tehrani is 23, hepatitis positive and three months clean of heroin. He is a volunteer at a radical syringe hand-out programme in the heart of working class south Tehran - a new front in Iran's long-fought war against drugs. With more than a million addicts, the authorities fear epidemics of hepatitis and HIV. "I was introduced to heroin by my mother and her friends when I was 15," Tehrani says. "I used to just smoke it but started injecting about three times a day last year. I've been on methadone for three months now but my family don't care. My mother has been in a string of temporary marriages with younger men and when I'm on drugs, it gets me off her back." Tehrani now spends most of his time at the drop-in centre where addicts are given clean syringes, offered medical treatment for abscesses and other injuries, and encouraged to move to a methadone treatment programme. Sitting near the entrance to a small alley, the centre is reached through a nondescript door covered by a cloth curtain. In a courtyard, about two dozen men sit and chat, smoking cigarettes and waiting to see a doctor. They will each be given a pack containing free needles, disinfectant swabs, a spoon for preparing the heroin mixture and a filter to remove impurities in the drug. A woman sits to one side, moving her arms slowly and without co-ordination. Blood is caked on her forehead, and her black manteau - the long outer garment demanded by the religious authorities - is covered in dirt. For Iranian women, the stigma of addiction is greater than for men and many turn to prostitution to pay for their habit. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #6 White Slag with a Jihadi Juche chaser? |
| Posted by: Sparks 2004-10-26 3:34:37 PM |
| #5 I wish the mullahs the best of luck in their "Jihad On Drugs". hehe. |
| Posted by: BH 2004-10-26 1:56:48 PM |
| #4 Zen, are you into root causes or somthin'? :-) Sure it sounds hopeless. If I were there my existential question would be: "Dying slow death from drug abuse or quickly killing mullahs?" I'll go with the second. |
| Posted by: Cornîliës 2004-10-26 10:27:58 AM |
| #3 Incredibly tyrannical government. CHECK! Hyper-restictive intolerant state religion. CHECK! Completely corrupt judicial system. CHECK! Almost nonexistent industrial complex. CHECK! Crumbling national infrastructure. CHECK! Barbaric antiquated puritanical culture. CHECK! Ageist noncompetitive economy. CHECK! Zero hopes of upward mobility. CHECK! Perfect breeding ground for hardcore addiction. CHECK! |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-10-26 10:18:47 AM |
| #2 First I've heard of it. I would have thought the mullahs would have been in there hanging everyone in sight to stamp the problem out. Unless, of course, they are in with the pushers. |
| Posted by: Bryan 2004-10-26 9:29:40 AM |
| #1 Al Sadr is a dope dealer. The Heroin comes from Afghanistan via Iraq. Sick bastards. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-10-26 4:10:29 AM |