According to the UN Office on Drugs, over the last decade, drug use in Iran reduced by 0.4 percent, Iranian police commander, General Ismail Ahmadi Muqaddam said, MEHR agency said.
He said that in 1999, the number of drug users among the population was 2.8 percent, in 2010 this figure dropped up to 2.4 percent.
He said that today more than 60 percent of drug addicts are undergoing treatment. It resulted in reduction of AIDS cases for the last 3 years. "The country has prepared the socio-cultural project to combat the drug. It was approved by the president. The project will start this year," he said at the first conference of heads of departments to combat drug, Economic Cooperation Organization member-countries.
Iran will strengthen the fight against drugs for the next two years, Ahmadi Muqaddam said. "Control on the borders of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be tightened for the next two years. It will be too difficult to transport drugs to other countries," he said.
He said that the current process of strengthening the borders is implemented by 70 percent. Over the next two years it ill be fully completed.
Chiefs of the departments on combat drugs from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey will attend the two-day conference.