A Member of the Expediency Discernment Council: Three and a Half Million Drug Addicts in Iran

While the Drug Control Headquarters has reported that the number of addicts is approximately 2 million and 808 thousand, the head of a working group at the Expediency Discernment Council claims that this figure should be increased by 20 to 30 percent. Several media outlets in Iran have interpreted this announcement as a sign that the Drug Control Headquarters has finally disclosed the 'real number' of addicts after five years. According to IRNA news agency, Saeed Safatian, head of the Addiction Demand Reduction Working Group of the Independent Drug Control Committee, stated on Sunday, July 4, that the statistics from the Drug Control Headquarters are 'not accurate' and should be increased by 20 to 30 percent. Therefore, the actual number of drug addicts in Iran should be considered to be around 3 million and 369 thousand to 3 million and 650 thousand people. Mr. Safatian noted that part of this data was obtained through home visits and questioning individuals, which families may not have reported to avoid various problems. On Saturday, Parviz Afshar, spokesman for the Drug Control Headquarters, announced based on the statistics from the 'Drug Epidemiology' project that the number of drug addicts in Iran is 2 million and 808 thousand. He also mentioned that research from a health center in Kerman indicated a figure of three million addicts in Iran. According to Mr. Afshar, the Drug Control Headquarters conducted the 'Drug Epidemiology' project and ultimately, after holding meetings between the Ministry of Health, the Welfare Organization, and other institutions, and 'discussing the statistics and continuous consumption of drugs over the past year, the number of addicts was calculated to be 2 million and 808 thousand.' In previous years, officials of the Islamic Republic had reported the number of addicts as 1 million and 300 thousand. Meanwhile, Ali Hashemi, head of the Independent Drug Control Committee of the Expediency Discernment Council, accused Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government of 'manipulating statistics' regarding the number of addicts and stated that the managers of Hassan Rouhani's government are also 'continuing the wrong path of the previous government.' He stated that Ahmadinejad did not allow the results of a 'drug addiction epidemiology' study to be announced in 2011. According to Mr. Hashemi, this report indicated the existence of 'four million consumers, including recreational users.' The spokesman for the Drug Control Headquarters stated on Saturday that considering the population growth, the number of addicts has not only not increased but has decreased. He did not specify which years the statistics of drug addicts were compared. Mr. Afshar's statements come at a time when, according to the 2016 census, Iran's population reached 79 million and 926 thousand and 270, which is an increase of nearly 4 million and 776 thousand compared to 2011. Thus, while Iran's population has increased by about 6 percent over the past five years, the number of drug addicts reported by the Drug Control Headquarters has increased by over 100 percent.