Iran Grapples With Drug Problem

Iran grapples with drug problem – Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the Iranian president, has proposed a budget estimated at 8bn for 2011, with a promise that spending will focus on agriculture, education and research. It is unclear how much of this budget will go on tackling the nation’s rising drug problem, though opium continues to pour into the country from neighbouring Afghanistan. In the last 10 months, Al Jazeera correspondent Alireza Ronaghi reports that police have seized over 400 tonnes of drugs and have lost dozens of police officers in the attempt to eradicate drug abuse in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Now some public security officials are saying the effort to chase and arrest drug dealers and users is almost pointless in the face of the sheer quantity of narcotics brought into the capital city every day. At a conference on drug control in Tehran this week, Brigadier-General Hamidreza Hosseinabadi, head of Iran’s anti-drug task force, criticised international organisations and Western powers for their lack of co-operation. “Those who chase terrorists in Afghanistan, they have left drug traffickers free. “I think they even guide traffickers. They allow a fifty percent increase of drug production in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, where the head quarters of British forces is located. What does that mean?” Hosseinabadi asked. Antonino De Leo, the representative of UN office on Drugs and Crime in Iran, says he is eager to help but his hands are tied. “Our technical assistance programme … is funded by …

Kids might be getting crack pipes

Filed under: drug addiction help free

It's bad enough the Selinger government is handing out free crackpipes to help addicts use illicit drugs. We now find out that the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority might be giving crackpipe kits to kids too. When asked whether there is an age limit …
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NJ drug treatment advocates upset by Gov. Christie's veto of immunity for …

Filed under: drug addiction help free

Paul Ressler has worked tirelessly to help put a dent in that statistic. He's spent much of the last year serving on the Governor's Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse and the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, promoting the law he …
Read more on The Times of Trenton – NJ.com