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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Opiates of the Iranian People |
| 2005-09-23 |
| Severely EFL If he could afford it, Ali Nariman would drink beer, he says. But like most Iranians, he is poor, and so takes his solace in the form of a small gray ball of opium... Nariman is 18. And like hundreds of thousands of Iranians turning to harder narcotics at younger ages, he regards drugs as the only alternative to work... According to the U.N. World Drug Report for 2005, Iran has the highest proportion of opiate addicts in the world -- 2.8 percent of the population over age 15. Only two other countries -- Mauritius and Kyrgyzstan -- pass the 2 percent mark. With a population of about 70 million and some government agencies putting the number of regular users close to 4 million, Iran has no real competition as world leader in per capita addiction to opiates, including heroin. When an earthquake leveled the city of Bam in 2003, among the emergency supplies rushed to the scene were doses of methadone, a synthetic drug used to treat heroin and morphine addicts, for the 20 percent or more of the population believed to be addicted. So many Iranians rely on opiates that an influential government analyst suggests the state itself should consider cultivating poppies. "Yes," said Azarakhsh Mokri, director of the Iranian National Center for Addiction Studies: "A strategic reserve of narcotics."... ...Drugs remain so prevalent that many Iranians describe their availability as evidence of a government plot. After students rioted at Tehran University in 1999, residents of a locked-down dormitory told of drug dealers being allowed in to distribute narcotics for free. "I believe this is the policy of the state, to make all the youth addicted," said Hamid Motalebi, 22, a police officer on duty in a south Tehran park ... Junkies with nukes. Iran and NKOR as the axis of White Slag? |
| Posted by:Elmoter Omomolet3528 |
| #6 I wonder how much weed they're smoking? I thought that was traditional there, with the assasins and all. |
| Posted by: Penguin 2005-09-23 15:27 |
| #5 Get that man a ball of dope! |
| Posted by: Al Swearengen 2005-09-23 14:43 |
| #4 Another fine example of Islam at its best. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2005-09-23 14:33 |
| #3 wonder if the opium comes with little puzzles, like Lucky beer caps? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-09-23 13:05 |
| #2 Capitalism at its best/worst. And if the MM, with no ACLU to crimp their style, can't stop drugs, and I'd bet they're trying, why do we think we can? |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-09-23 12:03 |
| #1 Unbilievable,opium is cheaper than beer. |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-09-23 12:00 |