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Daily eight people die in Iran of drug abuse

Society Materials 2 November 2014 10:42 (UTC +04:00)
The victims are mainly 25-30 years old people
Daily eight people die in Iran of drug abuse

Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 2

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

Deputy head of Iran Drug Control Headquarters, Hanif Hosseini said that at least eight people lose their lives in Iran daily due to drug abuse.

He added that the victims are mainly 25-30 years old people, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported Nov. 2.

Earlier, Ali Asghar Refahi, a judiciary official said that over 75 percent of drug addicted people in Iran are at the age of 15 to 39.

The Anti Drug Headquarters, in a report published early October warned that the age of using drugs for the first time has reduced to 15 among Iranian students.

"The use of methamphetamine has shown a rise in the current year compared to seven years ago, increasing from 3 to 26 percent," the report revealed.

The Islamic Republic officials say that over 1.32 million suffer drug addiction in Iran.

The figure hits 3.5 million including the people who are recreational drug users, according to Babak Dinparast, the deputy for Treatment and Prevention of the Drug Control Headquarters.

Iran is situated on a major drug route between Afghanistan and Europe, as well as the Gulf States. The Islamic Republic shares about 900 kilometers of common border with Afghanistan, over which 74 percent of opium is smuggled.

About 237 metric tons of various drugs including 190 metric tons of opium, 35 metric tons of hashish, 5.4 metric tons of heroin, 5.3 metric tons of morphine and one metric tons of methamphetamine were seized in Iran during the first half of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21-Sept. 22).

It was reported that some 500 metric tons of drugs were seized in the country during the 12-month period from March 21, 2013 to March 21, 2014.

The fight against drugs annually costs Iran about $1 billion, according to the official estimates.

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