An Official: One Percent of Iranian Students Are at Risk of Addiction

The Director General of the Social Damage Prevention Office of the Ministry of Education stated that in the last academic year, 136,000 students in Iran, constituting one percent of all students in the country, were at risk of drug use. Nader Mansour Kiai, in an interview with the Tasnim news agency on Friday, November 14, presented this statistic for the first time and mentioned that among these 136,000 students, 3,600 had used drugs at least once. Kiai added that most of the drug-using students are 'boys aged over 15,' and the substances they use vary based on their geographical location, including 'light and heavy drugs like crystal meth.' However, he noted that most of these students are 'light drug users' and have not used industrial drugs. This official also reported the referral of these 3,600 drug-using students to treatment centers for 'outpatient or inpatient' care. It appears that the students who have been hospitalized, as he mentioned, are addicted students, but the Director General did not specify their number. Kiai described the 136,000 students at risk of drug use as individuals showing 'risk signs,' meaning that psychological, social, and environmental variables indicate these individuals are at risk of drug use. He also warned about the consequences of drug use, including the tendency towards 'suicide' among these drug-using students. This warning comes at a time when numerous reports of Iranian students' suicides have emerged in the past academic year, with the exact causes of a significant number of these suicides not being investigated and publicly released by a credible authority. The issue of social damage in Iran has gained significant attention from the Islamic Republic authorities in the past year, with Ali Khamenei holding four sessions to review these issues with responsible officials and institutions. The Ministry of Education of Tehran has also announced that its first priority for the 2017-2018 academic year is social damage. Social damage in Iran has been on the rise, and the school environment is also affected by the prevailing social atmosphere. Ataollah Soltani, the then-head of the Higher Education Committee of the Iranian Parliament, had reported in September 2014 the prevalence of drug use among students aged '8 to 9 years' in Iran. Alireza Jazini, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Drug Control Headquarters, stated in September 2014 that '0.4 percent' of students use crystal meth. The consumption of alcoholic beverages is also cited by Islamic Republic officials as another example of 'social damage' in Iran, with increasing concerns expressed about it. A significant percentage of heavy alcoholics in Iran has been reported. On Saturday, Mohammad Hadi Panahi, the head of the National Association of Addiction Therapists in Iran, told ILNA that 'alcohol consumption has increased significantly in the country in recent years.' Panahi added that 'alcoholics have become a national problem, and there is a significant percentage of heavy alcoholics in the country.' According to him, the statistics from our 7,000 treatment centers show that the number of alcoholics needing more help has increased. He also reported a 30 to 40 percent increase in the production of drug medications beyond the country's consumption, stating that these drugs are produced in the black market and enter the consumption cycle. He also announced that the wave of poisoning caused by impurities and lead in opium has led to a 9 percent increase in the mortality rate among addicts in Iran. According to Panahi, '70 percent of addicts are unaware of the compounds in homemade drugs and their side effects, and the prevalence of the use of homemade drugs is on the rise.' According to drug control statistics, there are currently 1,325,000 drug users in Iran, and the consumption of industrial drugs has reached 26 percent of all consumers. The number of victims resulting from the increased consumption of industrial drugs and homemade drugs containing very dangerous compounds has been rising in recent years.