Iran has been the focus of much political and international contention lately.
A country at odds with the US and its allies, we often only hear about their nuclear program and the resultant sanctions they have incurred upon themselves from the US and parts of Europe.
With so much attention on world politics, we tend to not know much about the social issues happening within Iran, a country with one of the worst heroin addiction problems in the world.
Sharing a border with Afghanistan, the world's largest opium producer, Iranians can easily obtain large amounts of opium and its derivatives for next to nothing.
For those Iranians looking to use a substance for a pick-me-up or for a bit of escapism, heroin is their item, considering alcohol is stigmatized in Islamic culture.
And with an official youth unemployment rate of 28% and inflation running at 42% a year, exacerbated by all their sanctions, you can see how Iranians now more than ever are turning to drugs.
According to Iran's own figures, 2 million out of 75 million people are now addicted: the world's highest incidence.
Some sources say it might even be higher.
With a dangerously stagnant economy, health officials and social workers in the country's most drug-affected areas have complained that, because of sanctions, their rehabilitation programs have become frozen.
Yet, Iran is actually known to have some of the most aggressively active drug policies in the world, with methadone clinics, charities for handling addiction problems, and needle exchange programs.
Additionally, drug dealers caught in Iran are dealt with very harshly.
In the past three or so decades, hundreds of smugglers have been hanged, and thousands of Iranian police officers have been killed in counter-narcotics operations.
Iranian Drugs of Choice But heroin and opium smuggled from Afghanistan aren't the only drugs officials have to worry about.
Crystal meth is often marketed to poor young men and middle-class women looking to lose weight, and it can be obtained in salons or bazaars.
Courses on how to produce crystal meth in your own home can be purchased for the equivalent of only $70-$100 US dollars.
In a country so encumbered by unemployment and poverty, the drug trade is also one of the most lucrative trades available (as it is in many parts of the world).
The difference in heroin price at the Afghanistan-Iran border and the Iran-Turkey border means that traffickers are pocketing $450-$600 million dollars a year.
And out of the 140 metric tons of raw opium that crosses into Iran from Afghanistan every year, only about 23 percent is seized.
So, in addition to the thousands of police officers that have lost their lives over the past three decades, thousands of border patrolmen met with similar fates.
A US Comparison In the U.
S.
, heroin addiction has similarly reached an all-time high.
The number of people who say they have used heroin in the past year jumped 53.
5 percent to 620,000 between 2002 to 2011, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
There were close to 3,100 deaths by overdose in 2010, a 55 percent increase from 2000, and close to 2,000 kilograms of the drug were seized at the Mexico-Texas border, up from 487 kilograms just in 2008.
Heroin use is becoming more and more prevalent in rural communities as well.
These small towns have no treatment centers for heroin addicts, and so many residents are left with very limited means of breaking their addictions.
Law enforcement officers in these towns are all agreeing that it's the most pressing and fast-spreading issue they currently have to deal with.
A country at odds with the US and its allies, we often only hear about their nuclear program and the resultant sanctions they have incurred upon themselves from the US and parts of Europe.
With so much attention on world politics, we tend to not know much about the social issues happening within Iran, a country with one of the worst heroin addiction problems in the world.
Sharing a border with Afghanistan, the world's largest opium producer, Iranians can easily obtain large amounts of opium and its derivatives for next to nothing.
For those Iranians looking to use a substance for a pick-me-up or for a bit of escapism, heroin is their item, considering alcohol is stigmatized in Islamic culture.
And with an official youth unemployment rate of 28% and inflation running at 42% a year, exacerbated by all their sanctions, you can see how Iranians now more than ever are turning to drugs.
According to Iran's own figures, 2 million out of 75 million people are now addicted: the world's highest incidence.
Some sources say it might even be higher.
With a dangerously stagnant economy, health officials and social workers in the country's most drug-affected areas have complained that, because of sanctions, their rehabilitation programs have become frozen.
Yet, Iran is actually known to have some of the most aggressively active drug policies in the world, with methadone clinics, charities for handling addiction problems, and needle exchange programs.
Additionally, drug dealers caught in Iran are dealt with very harshly.
In the past three or so decades, hundreds of smugglers have been hanged, and thousands of Iranian police officers have been killed in counter-narcotics operations.
Iranian Drugs of Choice But heroin and opium smuggled from Afghanistan aren't the only drugs officials have to worry about.
Crystal meth is often marketed to poor young men and middle-class women looking to lose weight, and it can be obtained in salons or bazaars.
Courses on how to produce crystal meth in your own home can be purchased for the equivalent of only $70-$100 US dollars.
In a country so encumbered by unemployment and poverty, the drug trade is also one of the most lucrative trades available (as it is in many parts of the world).
The difference in heroin price at the Afghanistan-Iran border and the Iran-Turkey border means that traffickers are pocketing $450-$600 million dollars a year.
And out of the 140 metric tons of raw opium that crosses into Iran from Afghanistan every year, only about 23 percent is seized.
So, in addition to the thousands of police officers that have lost their lives over the past three decades, thousands of border patrolmen met with similar fates.
A US Comparison In the U.
S.
, heroin addiction has similarly reached an all-time high.
The number of people who say they have used heroin in the past year jumped 53.
5 percent to 620,000 between 2002 to 2011, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
There were close to 3,100 deaths by overdose in 2010, a 55 percent increase from 2000, and close to 2,000 kilograms of the drug were seized at the Mexico-Texas border, up from 487 kilograms just in 2008.
Heroin use is becoming more and more prevalent in rural communities as well.
These small towns have no treatment centers for heroin addicts, and so many residents are left with very limited means of breaking their addictions.
Law enforcement officers in these towns are all agreeing that it's the most pressing and fast-spreading issue they currently have to deal with.