IRAN RANKS FIRST IN WORLD CONFISCATION OF NARCOTICS

SHAHR-E-KORD. A Welfare Organization drugs expert said Sunday that Iran is
taking the lead in confiscation of illicit drugs but, he noted, Iran has
not registered a good performance in its drug-fight.

"Iran has not allocated enough investment for drug fight. We should revise
the law on handling drug-trafficking cases," the head of the Anti-Drug
Headquarters of Iran's Welfare Organization, Dr. Houman Narenjiha told IRNA.

"In an effort to launch an effective cultural campaign against drug abuse,
we need to begin our work at primary schools level and to carry out such
programs in most remote arts of the country," the official said.

"Although we have the biggest stock of confiscated opium in Iran,
international conventions do not authorize us to produce methadone
(medicine helpful for drug addicts) locally," he said.

Narenjiha said drug addiction has hit an alarming level in Iran, but, he
added, there no official figure on the number of addicts.

The statistics for the Iranian calendar year of 1377 (March 1998-1999), he
said, some two million drug addicts have been reported in Iran.

Police have carried out a major crackdown on drug trafficking and abuse
during the past week, arresting 11,892 addicts and traders, and killing
nine traffickers in shootouts.

Iran is a major transit route for drugs, mainly opium, hashish and heroin,
from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Central Asia, Europe and the Persian Gulf
States.

Iranian authorities stepped up surveillance along the country's borders by
ordering the setting up of outposts and an electronically monitored barbed
wire fence along the 945-kilometer border with Afghanistan. A budget of 200
billion rials (dlrs 25 million) was allocated for the project.

Official reports say 3,100 Iranian police officers have been killed in
drug-related battles throughout Iran over the past twenty years.