16% of all Iranians are drug users.

I guess Iran has one of the largest drug problems in the world.

Link

“According to the latest official survey in the country, the number of drug addicts in Iran stands at four million, with more than 2.5 million current users”, it said.”

But that’s an official survey; the article goes on to state:

“On April 7, 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.”

That’s 11 million people!!!! Doesn’t sound like a great deal when you compare that number to the populations of the USA, China, India, and other high population countries. But Iran only has a population of 69 million. That’s 16%!

I am surprised that a nation that controls its people with an iron fist allows such drug consumption. People are executed in the streets for speaking out, but they allow drug use to run rampant. That’s 1 out of every 6.25 people is a drug user in Iran, a staggering statistic.

One thing the article leaves out is the type of drugs used. I wonder if they have access to heroin from Afghanistan? The article also mentions that the drug smuggling trade generates nearly three quarters as much as the oil trade does.


[edit on 5-5-2005 by skippytjc]

Oh yay crackheads which will soon have nukes,

thats comforting...

And your point being...

Perhaps the drugs keep the population subdued?

If everyone is stoned all the time then they may be less likely to rise up against the state since there too busy looking for there next fix.

Also could drug users just mean cannibis and other relatively harmless things?

However with the huge border with Afghanistan, the worlds leader heroin producer is this really that surprising?

Originally posted by KhieuSamphan
And your point being...

\


Um...My point is that 16% of Iranians are drug users. How could you have missed that?

Originally posted by C0le
Oh yay crackheads which will soon have nukes,

thats comforting...

More like militant ideological Islamic junkies with nukes.

i don't think i can call this statistic "staggering" until i've seen statistical averages for the rest of the world...

-koji K.

Originally posted by koji_K
i don't think i can call this statistic "staggering" until i've seen statistical averages for the rest of the world...

-koji K.

Sounds like a plan Koji, when will you have those numbers for us? K? Move along.

How could you have missed that?

Sorry my friend, I just get used to people posting in order to try and distort others' view of dfferent cultures/races, but then there is no hint of that in this post is there?

First you have to consider cultural influences.
Then you have to question which drugs we're talking about.
Then you've got to compare the percentages of other nations.

I'm from California of course, but up to a third of the people I know use drugs at least occasionally. It might not be such a staggering figure.

"Each day, approximately 6,000 young persons try their first cigarette and approximately 3,000 become daily smokers."

"About half of all nicotine users start by age 13, …nicotine addiction is a pediatric disease" - Dr. David Kessler (U.S FDA, 1996).

A quote taken from a statistical survey on American smoking habits.

Originally posted by The Vagabond
First you have to consider cultural influences.
Then you have to question which drugs we're talking about.
Then you've got to compare the percentages of other nations.

I'm from California of course, but up to a third of the people I know use drugs at least occasionally. It might not be such a staggering figure.

I agree that we should probably see some other statistics, but to use the "well, I know XX many that use.." doesnt work. Because for every person like you who may know a ton of users, I know virtually none.

But lets not forget the 1 out of 6.25 number. Thats basically stating that just about every household (assuming the average contains about 6) has a drug user. Thats doesnt seem high? (no pun intended)

[edit on 5-5-2005 by skippytjc]

Originally posted by skippytjc

Originally posted by koji_K
i don't think i can call this statistic "staggering" until i've seen statistical averages for the rest of the world...

-koji K.

Sounds like a plan Koji, when will you have those numbers for us? K? Move along.

Well, you made the claim the figure was staggering, i apologize for expecting you to be able to back it up...

but, here you go:

www.nida.nih.gov...

I refer you to table 8. You'll notice that the average figures for drug use in the US for blacks and whites are around 8-9%, these are the official figures, which compare pretty favorably to the official iranian statistics of 5% (using the 4 mil figure cited as the official one, not the MP's claim of 11 mil- i'm sure unofficial US figures would be higher, as well.)

also, keep in mind that US figures are MUCH higher in the 18-35 year old age group (around 17%), so one has to take into account the age distribution within the iranian population as compared to the US population.

finally, also keep in mind that the US has spent countless, untold billions on its "war on drugs"... i'm willing to bet Iran has spent maybe less than 1% of the US total on its own drug problem. not bad, considering....

the first time is free, next time you do your research!

-koji K.

rather than threaten them with a pre-emptive strike, maybe we should drop caseloads of beer and glo-sticks and airlift a stage with the remaining Grateful Dead jamming and we can simply win them over with our love.

removed due to double posting.

I'm an Iranian addict and couldn't control my fingers

[edit on 5-5-2005 by Crakeur]

This I know for a fact, in sixties, CIA was dropping packs of heroin onto crowds at hippie demonstrations.

90% of drugs used today are invented in high tech labs under the name of some research or medicine or interrogation agent. #1 Nation which produces drugs is Afghanistan, which prior to 9/11 banned the production and exporting of drugs under the control of Taliban (possibly for religious reasons). and remarkably decreased the production of drugs, which were exported to the west before. After 9/11, US invaded Afghanistan and when the things were settled down, statistics showed that the drug production in afghanistan is %90 increased after the invasion.

Some people can accept the possibility of a war to conquer and maintain oil production. keep in mind that a barrel of oil is sold at about 50-100$ (i have no idea) and a gram of heroin is sold at about 200-400$ (maybe much more, I guess it depends a lot).

Invasions are not always done by tanks, nukes, troops etc., degeneration is also a very powerfull weapon and directly affects the young generation thus the future of the invaded country.

I believe that the drug of choice in Iran is Hashish.

(Did you ever see the movie Midnight Express?)

I wonder if they included alcohol in those numbers?

Yes it will be Pot. In fact the UK has very similar Pot usage statistics, reported at around 15%.

The unofficial statistics suggest as high as one third of the UK smokes Pot socially, I trully believe that as it is infact hard to find someone that has not smoked pot.

I agree with the above statements. If the statistics include marijuana or even alcohol, then the numbers aren't surprising at all. But if these are true hardcore heroin addicts, then the numbers are truly shocking.

Originally posted by Uncle Joe


Also could drug users just mean cannibis and other relatively harmless things?

Most likely...Persian Brown anyone?

Cannabis is a little more mainstream in the middle east as far as I know. Although it is forbidden by Islam, it is seen as on the same level as alcohol.

16% seems like a bit of an exaggeration. The article does state that the number of addicts is 4 million. That's a similar proportion to most western countries. And if statistics are to be believed, 1 in 5 people in Britain have tried drugs - that's 20%.

Think about how many people you know who like to spark up a fatty now and then. The could be counted as users in the same sense as those counted by this Iranian survey.

The drug problem in Iran is no worse than anywhere else in the world as far as I can tell from comparing this article to Western statistics. People on this board are too eager to jump at opportunities to criticise Iran. If that was the intention of this thread then you're just grasping at straws. There are far bigger problems which remain largely unaddressed because we've heard it all before, such as the lack of democracy, while things like this come up every other day. There is no need to portray Iranians as morally inferior. They do however live under an inferior political system.