According to Islam, as interpreted by the Islamic regime of Iran, consumption of Alcoholic beverages is completely prohibited and it is considered a sin. On the basis of the same religious ideology the Islamic regime of Iran has legislated criminal codes, which envisage punishments for those who produce, consume and deal with alcoholic beverages of any kinds. The same laws say that if a person is arrested three times for consumption of alcoholic beverages (no degree of alcohol in blood or any other criterion that refers to being in the state of “drunkenness” is not mentioned in the laws and the disciplinary forces can arrest anyone that they suspect of having consumed alcoholic beverages, and usually their criteria is the smell of alcohol coming out of the mouth of the suspects) can be condemned to “execution”.
Therefore, a person that has consumed several beers and he or she is arrested for the thirds time can face death penalty. The first and second times lead to prison terms, lashes and Islamic torture called “Ta’azir”. Usually the sentences are handed over by the “revolutionary courts. The courts that look into such matters are called “Social Vices Courts”. They are apparently independent but organizationally they are a part of the revolutionary court and the judges of these courts are appointed through the officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts and they make their judgments with the same laws and regulations as the revolutionary courts.
In other words these courts act illegally and do not observe any law except than what is written in the books of the religious rulings of the big Ayatollahs, especially so- called Imam Khomeini. However, these books of rulings of the big Ayatollahs are almost the same, as if they have copied from each other. (The reality is that the big ones have all copied from the same sources: the most important source is the book of Mohammad Bagher Majlesi, or Alameh Majlesi, who lived in Safavid period and headed the Mullahs of that time).
On the other side, there is no single ruling in the Islamic regime of Iran, even by the second and third class Mullahs (let alone the big ones) that forbid narcotic drugs. In fact, the Mullahs have long been the loyal customers of narcotic drugs. There is not any reference to the narcotic drugs in the books of rulings of the Ayatollahs (a great part of these “books of Rulings” or Ressalahs are devoted to the rituals of prayers for women in the different stages of their monthly period. The description of these rituals is mentioned so meticulous and sometimes with pornographic details in all Rassalahs of the Grand Ayatollahs). However, there is no single thing about the narcotic drugs in the books of rulings or Fatwas of the Ayatollahs.
The organizations in charge of campaign against narcotic drugs in Iran have been frustrated by failing to find a religious ruling against narcotic drugs (while everything is administered in the Islamic regime of Iran by the same sources). Out of desperation, they have adopted a sentence from Khomeini for doing their job and that sentence says: “one is not allowed to do harm to himself.” This sentence is of course taken out of context by those miserable officials who were trying to find a religious basis for their job. In fact, Khomeini has never meant to say this sentence about prohibition of the narcotic drugs.
The end line is that many of the young Iranians who may have answered their quest for some kind of refreshment by drinking couple of beers, have resorted to using various kinds of the narcotic drugs. After all it is less risky for them to use drugs than alcoholic beverages of any kind.
Iran is basically a transit route for the international trade of the narcotic drugs. Although the role of Iran as the transit route has not changed during the last decades, the rest of the route has gone under considerable developments. The” Golden Triangle” is not using the old routes. Instead, the mafia of narcotics that is dependent on the products in Afghanistan, and Pakistan, flow their products through Iran to the European countries (very little to the USA and North America. The latter is almost completely fed by the Latin American sources).
The semi-official route of the drug traders is: Afghanistan-Iran-Caspian Sea-EU. (Formerly it was Golden Triangle-Iran-Turkey-Eastern Europe-EU. ). The fact that Iran has stayed there as the main transit route has contributed to the expansion of consuming narcotic in Iran. The policy of the Islamic regime in suppressing Alcoholic beverages (a religious sin and a violation of the criminal code) has resulted in a disaster in Iran. Iran has one of the highest numbers of drug addicts in the world. More than half of the prisoners in the 200,000 population of the Iranian prisons are drug users and dealers.
You can add the following reasons to those mentioned above for this disaster:
1- Lack of enough social disdain towards the narcotic drugs.
2 – Introduction of new kinds of narcotics drugs, including the “psychotropic substances” (downers and uppers) to the market of Iran.
3 – Cheap and easy availability of the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances in the market. Sometimes they cheaper than ordinary cigarettes.
4 – The huge number of the young people in the population that are deprived from many kinds of recreational facilities.
5 – The massive number of the unemployed persons in the society.
6 – The local cultures of addiction in some parts of the country.
7- The business of narcotic drugs in a systematic way in some parts, especially the southeast and northeast of Iran.
8 – The growing sophistication of the traders of the narcotic drugs. Some gangs in the south of Iran are equipped with anti-aircraft rockets, and heavy guns.
9 – The growing relations of the traders in narcotic drugs, as organized criminal institutions, sometimes called “narco-terrorists” with the terrorist organizations.
10 – Lack of the control by the police and military forces, especially in the border areas.
11- The extensive corruption of the police and military forces dealing with the narcotic drug dealers. This issue results in returning of a lot of discovered narcotic drugs back to the circulation of the market.
12 – Consumption of narcotic drugs among the Iranian educated persons is mind blowing. You can hardly find a physician of any kind or an engineer in Iran that do not use narcotic drugs. They only use more expensive types of drugs or pay more for the same level of the narcotics. Consuming narcotic drugs has turned into the main type of recreation for many Iranian professional and educated people in Iran. I am sure the sense of being frustrated in the Islamic regime of Iran has a great role to play in pushing these types of the Iranians towards the narcotic drugs.
The Islamic regime of Iran is responsible for a major part of the expansion of the addiction to narcotic drugs in Iran and the next regime of Iran will have to tackle with this problem soon after the collapse of the Mullahs dictatorship.
