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Javad Lal Mohammad

Life has a cruel game. It is truly heartbreaking to hear that the annual drug trade in Iran is close to two hundred billion tomans, which is five times the budget for education in the country. National smugglers make profits from this evil, with an annual income of three billion dollars. Additionally, “500,000 kilograms of drugs are consumed annually in the country” and we are not among the top 10 countries in the world for drug consumption, yet we still remain high on the list.

Although these statistics are disturbing and terrifying, it is even more horrifying that we ignore the bitter truth and interact with the flawed thinking dominating social considerations, with the strategy of drug survival, and sit back as this cycle continues. Traffickers bring in drugs, authorities take money to fight against it, and some people, with unfinished regrets, sit in a corner of the street and consume the defeated bodies, until the world stands still and remains trapped in this cycle, which continues to repeat itself.

Isn’t it terrifying? It’s not terrifying that every year “7000 to 7500 innocent and addicted babies are born” (4) and their addicted parents only say: “God, let me die… why?”

It is not frightening that “access to drugs has become 7 minutes” (5); the number of addicts in Iran has exceeded “4 million people” according to various estimates (6); based on addiction prevalence in 2015, with a simple division, “340,000 women between the ages of 15 and 25 have fallen into addiction” (7); “36,000 people are added to the number of addicts in the country each year and, in turn, over 3,000 people die annually due to addiction” (8). Yet, we are still perplexed by this great tragedy, twisting and turning for a solution and turning the mechanism of supply reduction into a security-judicial discourse. We have been neglectful of the rapid developments of the addiction phenomenon and our solution has become to arrest and imprison.

In fact, to make the severity of this tragedy more tangible, if we were to tell the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran that the population of Palestine, about 5 million people, have all become addicted and enslaved to the sleep of addiction through a systematic program, what would they say and do? Will they not send their friendly humanitarian aid to this country? Will they not deeply investigate the inner and outer aspects of this issue? Will they not raise their voices loudly about its past, present, and future? So why do they remain so indifferent towards the population of 4 million people who are struggling with addiction within their own country – who are essentially a country themselves – and issue a permit of silence and only whisper about the statistics of this great abnormality, and place this issue in the depths of their third-hand affairs; just as they have done with education?

Oh God! It is very simple to say that “the age of drug use has decreased to 11 years” (9) and “out of 500,000 kilograms of annual consumption, 50,000 kilograms are crystal meth” and even more alarming is that “2000 kilograms of these substances have been seized and confiscated in one-gram packages around schools” (10) and “60% of drug users have stated that they started using during their school years” (11) and the officials at the Ministry of Education are ignoring the statistics instead of addressing the root causes of this national crisis.

In reality, facing these heartbreaking statistics may be daunting, but there must be someone to write and remind us that 40 years have passed since the Islamic government took power and during this time, millions have been arrested, imprisoned, and executed with no therapeutic effect. Everything has become more expensive, yet drugs have not become more expensive, allowing drug mafia to continue their plans and maintain their market. It is definitely time to change our perspective and our reading. This crisis of captivity is not something that will pass with time. We must have a cohesive and united plan. Not having a strong statistical center and a well-equipped monitoring system means neglecting and not paying attention to the people’s institutions, experts, and opinions, and instead giving power to those who only care about their own comfort and the suffering of the nation.

Ignoring preventive education in schools means moral blindness towards innocent children whose parents smoke every night and they wait for them to come out and they don’t. It means neglecting the filthy and deadly environment in which these children struggle, it means disregarding fundamental training and academic methods.

I really wanted to write more. About the angels who have lost their way and no longer hear their own cries. About those who are crippled and bony and filled with envy, sitting by the cold window of the dungeon and waiting for the moon to come and embrace them. About the women who have fallen to the cold ground and their nights are starless. About the students who smile at any kindness and do not expect anything but bitter fate. About the grim and swollen glands that only want to redeem themselves. And let this be for another time…

Notes:

1. Statements by Eskandar Momeni, Head of the Anti-Drug Headquarters, Mehr News Agency, November 21, 2018.

2. Babak Dinpars’ statements, Deputy of the Working Group on Reducing Addiction Demand, Khabar Online, November 18, 2013.

3. Statements by Alireza Jazini, Deputy Head of the Anti-Narcotics Headquarters, ISNA, January 15, 2015.

4. Saeed Safatian’s statements, head of the Addiction Reduction Committee, Deutsche Welle, August 22, 2018.

5. Statements by Hassan Norouzi, spokesperson for the Social Commission of Parliament, Mashregh News, August 3, 2018.

6. Statements by Javad Heravi, former representative of the parliament, Tasnim, 9 Esfand 1392.

7. Mehsani Bandpay, the head of the Welfare Organization of Iran, statements, Mashregh News, July 10, 2018.

8. Statements by Iraj Harirchi, spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, Hamdeli newspaper, 26 August 2016.

9. Statements of Hassan Lotfi, member of the Social Commission of the Parliament, Mashregh News, 26 August 2018

10. The statements of the head of the anti-narcotics police, Panah News Agency, 29 Khordad 1397.

11. Statements by Alireza Jazini, Deputy of the Anti-Drug Headquarters, ISNA News Agency, September 9, 2014.