IRAN DRUG MENACE TIED TO AFGHANISTAN`S POPPY CULTIVATION

SARI, MAZANDARAN PROV. Director of Iran's Anti-Narcotics Headquarters
Mohammad Fallah said here Sunday that as long as Afghanistan
continues to cultivate opium poppies, and there is rampant insecurity
in the country, Iran's drug problem will continue.

Speaking at a seminar on finding ways of combating drugs, he added,
"We have to assist in establishing security for anti-drug trafficking
policies in Iran to be successful."

The drug tsar added that with a stable Afghanistan and through
investment in the country's agricultural sector, cultivation of opium
poppies will plummet and Iran's problems will also lessen.

Fallah said that the closure of the eastern borders has been
ineffective, adding, "Even if we do our utmost in closing the eastern
borders, it will not prevent the drugs from getting in Iran."

He refuted the statements that direct confrontation and closure of
the borders can in fact prevent drug trafficking calling such
policies as 'shallow in scope'.

"A proof that such polices do not work is the high number of illegal
Afghans entering the country despite the tight border control,"
Fallah pointed out.

He said statements claiming that with the mopping-up of the 'Khak
Sefid' region in northeastern Tehran about 80 percent of narcotics in
the Greater Tehran area have be wiped out are false since there is
still drug distribution in Tehran.

"This shows that any program based on merely physical confrontation
will fail and there should be other solutions," the anti-drug
campaign chief said.

Pointing out that narcotics use has roots in economic malaise,
unemployment, injustice and cultural issues, Fallah said that greater
cultural work is needed to uproot this scourge, he said.

He said that economic problems, poverty and unemployment do not on
their own lead to drug abuse, adding, "Injustices rampant in the
society is can contribute to the drug menace."

Domestic laws also contribute to the growth in drug use, said Fallah
adding, "Our laws gives such leeway to the judges that they can
easily sentence an addict to prison."

He said the laws should be delineated such that in addition to prison
other solutions be made available to individuals that do not infringe
upon their dignity.

"If we throw someone in prison even if for few hours, and his dignity
is questioned, then we have opened the door for drug use for him," he
said.

This is not to say that there should not be any physical punishment,
but that "Our mind set is that imprisonment should be the last
resort."

Iran is a major route for smuggling drugs from Afghanistan and
Pakistan to markets in the Persian Gulf, Europe and beyond. Opium,
heroin, hashish and morphine are hauled through the country and
single busts involving a ton or more of drugs are not uncommon.

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.