Discovery of 14 Tons of Drugs in Iran in the First Week of the New Year

On Wednesday, April 8, the head of Iran's anti-drug police announced the discovery of 14 tons of drugs in the country during the first week of the new year, 1397. According to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), this amount represents a 36% increase compared to the same period last year, 1396. Mohammad Masoud Zahedian, the head of Iran's anti-drug police, stated that approximately 78% of the 14 tons of drugs seized were found in eastern provinces of Iran. The eastern provinces of Khorasan Razavi, Khorasan South, and Sistan and Baluchestan border Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Afghanistan being the largest producer of opium and heroin in the world. Due to its proximity to Afghanistan, Iran has always been on the route for drug trafficking, especially opium and heroin, to the West and Europe. Previously, the director general of security and police at Kerman province stated that the increase in drug production in Afghanistan to over 8,000 tons in 2017 was one of the reasons for the increase in seizures by Iranian police. In contrast, this official noted that Afghanistan's production in 2001 was only 100 tons. The discovery of 14 tons of drugs in just one week comes at a time when the police reported that the total amount of drugs seized in Iran in 1396 was 'over 713 tons.' It is noteworthy that there is hardly a week that police officials do not report drug seizures and arrests related to these substances. In October of the previous year, an official from the Drug Control Headquarters reported the seizure of over ten tons of various drugs and psychoactive substances in the first week of that month, stating that 7,725 individuals were also arrested in connection with this. A month earlier, in Shahrivar 96, a Kerman provincial official reported the seizure of over 50 tons of various drugs in the first four months of the current year in that province. However, Iran is not just a transit route for global drug trafficking; a significant amount of these substances is sold and consumed within the country, to the extent that, according to official reports, drug and psychoactive substance use is prevalent in schools and high schools in Iran. In Azar 96, Anoushiravan Mohseni Bandpay, the head of the Welfare Organization, announced that the number of identified addicts in Iran was two million eight hundred thousand, with the age group being 15 to 64 years.