IRAN`S TOP JUSTICE VOWS NO MERCY TO DRUG RUNNERS AND DEALERS

TEHRAN. Iran's top judge promised no mercy Tuesday for anybody
sentenced for drug dealing or smuggling, as another official called
the country's drugs problem a national crisis.

Meanwhile a reformist newspaper called for a more moderate approach
to the growing number of addicts in order to curb the spread of
drug-related AIDS, notably with the free distribution of syringes to
avoid contamination.

"Drug traffickers and sellers must no longer benefit from any amnesty
- -- on the contrary they must be severely repressed," the state IRNA
news agency quoted Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahrudi as saying on
International Anti-Drugs Day.

Hashemi-Shahrudi, a conservative cleric, told government officials
charged with waging war on drugs that traffickers and dealers should
be "isolated and excluded from society."

"Those who introduce drugs in the high schools or government
departments must be forbidden from all state jobs," the judge said.

The head of the government's anti-drug division, Mohammad Fallah,
whose department answers to reformist President Mohammad Khatami,
also sounded the alarm.

"The drug problem has become a national crisis in Iran," he said.

Despite the death penalty for possession of more than 30 grammes of
heroin and more than five kilos (11 pounds) of opium, an estimated
six million Iranians, nearly 10 percent of the population, are
believed to consume drugs to some extent.

At a drug seminar Sunday, experts placed the number of regular users
or addicts at between two and 2.5 million.

Fallah said 227,000 people had been arrested for drugs between March
2000 and March 2001.

During the same period, 1,083 traffickers were killed, and another
1,378 people, mostly villagers, had been taken hostage by drug
runners, Fallah said.

The country's eastern border with Afghanistan, Iran's main source for
heroin, has become a battleground for traffickers and state security
forces, with civilians often stuck in the middle.

More than 5,433 traffickers had been arrested with drugs hidden on
their bodies, Fallah said.

Meanwhile, stressing the country's need for a treatment strategy
rather than just a policy of strict punishment, the daily Iran News
called Tuesday for free distribution of syringes to drug addicts to
stop the spread of AIDS.

"Our prisons are full of addicts", the paper said in an editorial.

Most of Iran's AIDS sufferers have contracted the disease through
contaminated needles, the paper noted.

"The general practice in most countries is to distribute free
epidermic needles and syringes," it said. "We must undertake a
similar practice, as well".

The paper said that 300,000 addicts injected drugs, and 70 percent of
AIDS cases were caused by contaminated shared needles.

Iran's prisons, where an estimated 70 percent of inmates have been
incarcerated for drugs-related offences, are a major source of AIDS
through smuggled needles.

Official figures meanwhile put the number of AIDS cases at 2,721, up
23 percent from November last year, while more than 10,000 carry the
virus, but experts say the real figures are higher.

IRNA said Monday that police had rounded up some 3,000 drug addicts
and small time dealers during a massive sweep in Tehran over the last
few days.

Iran is a major transit point between drug producers in Afghanistan
and Pakistan and the markets of Europe and the Gulf, although
security forces estimate they seize only about one-tenth of the
estimated 2,000 tonnes of drugs that pass through the country each
year.