Head of Anti-Drug Committee: Statistics Manipulation Regarding Number of Addicts Continues

The head of the independent anti-drug committee of the Expediency Discernment Council criticized what he termed the government's "statistical manipulation" regarding the reduction in the number of addicts during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, stating that the managers of the anti-drug headquarters under Hassan Rouhani are continuing the "wrong path of the previous government." Ali Hashemi, in an interview with ISNA news agency, also reported that in 2011, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the then President of Iran, did not allow the announcement of the results of an "epidemiological study on addiction." In this interview published on Tuesday, July 2, he stated that the report indicated the existence of "four million consumers including recreational users." The head of the anti-drug headquarters during Mohammad Khatami's presidency emphasized that at the beginning of Ahmadinejad's government, the number of drug users in Iran was three million and 720 thousand, of which "two million and 500 thousand were regular users and the rest were recreational users." Hashemi added: "The ninth government... in its first statements, announced the number of addicts as 750 thousand? How could it be that over eight years this number gradually increased to one million and 350 thousand?" He stressed: "Although with this statistical manipulation, they accept that during the two ninth and tenth governments, addiction has increased by about one hundred percent." The former head of the anti-drug headquarters stated: "Statistical manipulation in the field of addiction has hindered the advancement of objectives for combating drugs, and unfortunately, the managers of the secretariat continue the wrong path of the previous government." Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, Iran's Minister of Interior, announced last year in various speeches that the official number of addicts in Iran is one million and 300 thousand, while also stating that the unofficial number of addicts in Iran exceeds three million. Rahmani Fazli mentioned the financial turnover related to drugs as "three billion dollars," equivalent to "10 trillion tomans." Meanwhile, the former head of the anti-drug headquarters, in his interview based on the results of a study in 2004, stated that the damage from drugs to the country's economy in that year was 12 billion dollars, which based on the current dollar parity is 40 trillion tomans per year. He further emphasized that drug seizures only account for about 10 percent of the drugs consumed in Iran. According to Hashemi, the consumption of crystal meth in Iran last year was 50 tons, with maximum seizures being five tons, while opium seizures accounted for more than "8 percent of the total weight produced," and when considering hashish and heroin, "seizures reach 10.5 percent." Alireza Jazini, the deputy secretary-general of the anti-drug headquarters, reported the seizure of 553 tons of various drugs in 2014. Meanwhile, the head of the anti-drug police announced on Wednesday that about 135 tons of various drugs have been seized in the past three months, which is nearly a 25 percent increase compared to the same period last year. According to IRNA news agency, Ali Moidi stated that during this period, more than 92 thousand "traffickers" were arrested, which is a two percent increase compared to the same period last year.