Archive Sections: letters | music | index | features | photos | arts/lit | satire Find Iranian singles today!

Drugs

Something to talk about
Iran's losing war on drug trafficking could be a subject of discussion with the U.S.

November 26, 2004
iranian.com

Dozens of drug enforcement officers are killed when their patrol is ambushed by heavily armed drug traffickers. The officers are captured during the ambush and then executed.

I'm not talking about Colombia. Drug-related deaths has been a fairly routine occurrence in eastern Iran on the country's border with Afghanistan where the situation is "close to a war," according to Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Iran is the only country in the world where the expression "war on drugs" is indeed not a euphemism: 3,500 members of Iran's armed forces, including two generals, have been killed in battles with smugglers since 1979. Ten percent of Iran's armed forces are directly involved in the war.

But outgunned and outspent by ruthless adversaries who travel in Toyota Land Cruisers and 4x4 pickups equipped with anti-aircraft guns and missiles, Iranian forces can only claim modest gains. According to international agencies, Iran still manages to interdict approximately 17 percent of drugs entering its territory, a quantity exceeding that seized by all other countries in the world combined. In fact, 54 percent of narcotics seizures worldwide in 2001 were in Iran.

It is a losing war for Iran as the country now tops the world in per capita illicit drug addiction, according to the UNODC. In a country where heroin is cheaper than cigarettes, the official rate of addiction is declared to be 2 percent of Iran's population. Experts however believe the actual rate to be much higher as the government desperately tries to hide its gradual defeat in the war against drugs. 

Up to 90 percent of the heroin consumed in Europe comes from Afghanistan. Yet international aid in trying to stop the traffic through Iran has been very limited. The EU partly contributes $17m a year to the UN, which mounts anti-drug operations with the Iranian government. France has supplied 10 sniffing dogs and the UK bulletproof vests.

But compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars Iran is spending in combating drug traffickers, what Tehran has been given to date is peanuts, say Iranian officials. Captured traffickers have been found with the latest communication and navigation equipment, as well as highly sophisticated weaponry.

While traffickers shoot down Vietnam-era Iranian army helicopters with US-made stinger missiles, any form of military aid to Iran is ruled out because of continuing restrictions on arms exports to the Islamic Republic.

Washington's unilateral sanctions in fact have directly affected the fight against drugs in Iran. And US intervention in Afghanistan has so far not dealt with this problem. Not only that, but UNODC representative in Tehran, Antonio L. Mazzitelli, is convinced that the intervention has made things worse, making the opium crop more important for the 3.3 million Afghans who depend on it for their livelihood.

There certainly is a contrast between the help Iran is getting from Europe and the billion dollar aid package Washington has sent to Colombia. Up till now, drugs consumed in the United States have not come from Central Asia but from the Golden Triangle further east, and Latin America. So Washington has had nothing to gain by helping Iran fight trafficking.

Yet the 2003 UN Global Illicit Drug Trends report predicts a production shift of Heroin to Afghanistan as progress continues to be made in the traditional hub of Southeast Asia in eliminating the drug. With that in mind and the fact that Central Asian heroine seizures have already been made in the US, and the fact that Afghanistan produces 76 percent of the world's opium, one would not be far off questioning our current policy of disregard for collaborating with Iran on fighting drugs.

There is some recognition internationally that Iran in the the front line of the war on drugs, although this awareness has not translated into any meaningful assistance. It is clear, though, that Iran, left to its own devices, will lose the war.

Instead, the media is constantly filled with almost exactly the same accusations against Iran as were made against Baghdad. Conservative Republicans refuse to let go of their demand to "take the fight to Iran", and senior Bush Administration officials have openly supported a policy of regime change in Tehran.

Dialogue and cooperation with Iran, at least on this topic, will certainly create an understanding on both sides and create a basis for a gradual improvement in political relations and enhanced security for both parties. And a safe area of cooperation with Iran would be of course the war against drugs in Afghanistan.

Hence not only would the US revitalize real reforms amidst Iran's continual political tug-of -war while opening up the doors to further solutions of existing problems, but would also help liberate the world, including our streets and homes in America from an enemy just as lethal, if not more lethal than terrorism itself.

.................... Spam?! Khalaas!

* *

COMMENT
For letters section
To Nima Kasraie

* FAQ
* Advertising
* Support iranian.com
* Editorial policy
* Write for Iranian.com
* Reproduction

ALSO
Nima Kasraie
Features
in iranian.com

RELATED
Opinion
in iranian.com

Book of the day
mage.com

Iranian Nationality and the Persian Language
by Shahrokh Meskoob

© Copyright 1995-2013, Iranian LLC.   |    User Agreement and Privacy Policy   |    Rights and Permissions