Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 4
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: One percent of Iranian students consume narcotics, Alireza Jazini, deputy director of the country's Anti-Narcotics Headquarters, stated.
He added that over 60 percent of the students receive narcotics from students of the same age for the first time, Iran's ISNA news agency reported March 4.
Statistics show that the use of narcotics in the country is on the rise, he said, adding that 1.325 million people in Iran are below 15 years of age.
Two years ago, 5 percent of women in Iran consumed narcotics, but the figure has risen to about 10 percent currently, he noted.
Annually about 450 metric tons of opium is consumed in Iran, Rouzbeh Kardouni, the head of Social Vulnerabilities Office at the Ministry of Cooperatives Labor and Social welfare said Feb. 16.
The figure is equal to 42 percent of total opium consumption in the world, Kardouni said.
The official further said that over 1.3 million people suffer drug addiction in Iran.
He added that the number of people who use narcotics has increased by 70 people per day in the last five years.
According to official estimates, the fight against drugs annually cost Iran about $1 billion.
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 ton of methamphetamine were seized in Iran in the first half of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21-Sept. 22, 2014).
It was reported that some 500 metric tons of drugs were seized in the country during the last Iranian fiscal year (March 21, 2013 to March 21, 2014).
Edited by CN