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Iran
Focus
 Tehran, Iran,
Feb. 28 – Some 60 percent of drug addicts in Iran are between 14 to 16 years
of age, according to a study conducted on the national crisis which has
reached epidemic proportions.
Agha Balazadeh, head of
education and welfare in East Azerbaijan
province made the announcement, stating, “The majority of addicts in society
are individuals aged between 14 and 16. From the 3.2 million of the country’s
addicts, 60 percent are youths whose average age lies between 14 and 16. This
is the equivalent of 1.8 million people”.
Previous estimates have put the total number of illegal-drug users in Iran at more
than seven million.
Last year, Akbar
Alami, a member of Iran’s
Majlis (Parliament) from Tabriz, northwest Iran,
went public and revealed that the actual number of drug users in Iran stood at
11 million.
An official survey, whose findings were released in 2005, showed that drug
smuggling in Iran was a 10
billion dollar market the previous year, nearly three quarters of the total
revenue from Iran’s
oil market during the same period.
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