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Iran : Some subering up survey on narcotic prices
28.01.2010

© IRAN-RESIST.ORG – Nov 22, 2009 | In its issue dated of the 6 November, the German newspaper Stern dedicated a report to the situation of drug addiction in Iran. A German journalist, Steffen Gassel, and an Iranian photographer threw themselves into “Iran, the quagmire of drug addiction” to deliver chocking images of this country that shows according to the UNO the highest drug addiction rate in the world.



There is a big difference with the dreamlike visions of blooming youth that are described by fake opponents or complacent journalists. Stern depicts public parks where gardeners pick up every morning not russet leaves but overdose victims or very young prostitutes who are being selling their body to purchase a crack dose. The article describes an apocalyptical landscape in Khak Sefid area or in Kossar Park in the South of Tehran : the ground is covered with worn syringes and stoned junkies lay on every bench with gaunt cheeks, opened mouth and eyes rolled upwards. The most common process of consumption is Khoun-bazi, blood game : they inject a dose, remove the blood from the same vein to inject it again immediately. According to the both young specialists they interviewed, the effect is guaranteed.
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The article also talks about Fereshteh -Angel, 19 years old, who does crack into an old and tiny building in the South of Tehran with her mother. The latter lights a cigarette so to soften with tobacco the acrid taste of the heroine they consume. The fallen angel thinks she started to be on drugs when she was 12 or 14 when her father left her mother and her 6 brothers and sisters. Her older brother who got high left home a year after her grand sister died in a car accident. When she was 15, the became the family head and started to prostitute herself to cater her family and purchase the daily dose for her and her mother who is such a good friend, even better than a guy.

In order to reach the places they hide, the German journalists made concessions such as the quotation of official statistics -1 million of permanent drug addicts, 700,000 occasional ones. Those statistics minimize the problem extent and contradict the first statement according to which Iran disposes of the world’s highest drug addict population -7 to 11 millions of Iranians and among them 16% to 21% of consumers by injection.

In the same mood, the article gives very few figures on drug prices. It solely mentions the daily income of a young prostitute -25 to 70 euros- and the price of a heroine dose : 3 euros (5 dollars). This lack of figures matches with another concession they granted to the regime : the praise of its merits in terms of prevention that would be according to Stern exemplary in the Middle-East.

There’s a reason to this lack of figures : the figures of the regime contradict each other. Besides this, according to people, the market is controlled by Pasdaran and Bassij, two intermingled militias. One controls borders, town councils and ministries. The other controls police. Those both militias control drug selling but also prostitution which gives junkies the possibility into this black economy to purchase their dose. This hypothesis is reinforced with the fact that drug prices are getting lower and goods turn even more affordable each time the rate of social protest raises.

Thus recently while the price of rent and foodstuffs raised from 60 to 70%, the price of drug not only didn’t suffer any raise but it lowered by 50 to 60% [1] in a year ! This means drug became more than 100% less expensive in terms of purchasing power.

The price of a kilo of crack changed from 12,000 dollars to 5,000 dollars -60% less.
The price of a kilo of heroine changed from 3,100 dollars to 1,700 dollars -54% less.
The price of a kilo of morphine changed from 2,542 dollars to 1,285 dollars -50% less.
The price of a kilo of opium changed from 600 dollars to 480 dollars -20% less.
The price of a kilo of cannabis resin changed from 346 dollars to 199 dollars -57% less.

Opium that is destined to old people has shown the smallest devaluation and crack, the drug that seduces youth people and women -prostitute profile- has shown the highest drop. This denotes the sellers’ interest for young consumers.

The same disparity exists regarding the multiplication rate of those semi-wholesale prices for dealers : for opium, the rate is 2.2 -a 4 to 5 grams’ dose costs 4.5 dollars which is equal to a heroine dose. However a gram of crack is sold for 7 dollars in the street, i.e. with a 40% minimum margin ! So they are sold off in order to dispose of several products with a similar price. Here is purchasing power !

The hard drug addicts end by using the terrible Crystal Meth -see video - whose 0.1 gram’s dose changed from 15 dollars to 11 dollars -15% of its price in the West. Ecstasy is not a product that raises the interest of sellers -because it doesn’t make consumers get high but it makes him happy and it s definitely less destructive. Thus its price remains high, on average 10 dollars a piece -i.e. more expensive than crack or heroine. The poorest people use 90% alcohol, the pharmaceutical item that is the best sold in Iran –information that could be useful to Sonia Kronlund in France Culture who praises unofficial freedom under the mullahs’ regime.

Thus we are far of the situation described by Stern whose report is deserving of existing In France, media is busy with pro-mullahs journalists who never mention this misery whose consequences are incalculable for the country’s future, with academic lobbyists who never carried out any research on the matter or with Western bloggers who solely defend the fake opponents Tehran sends. Then congratulation to Germans and notice to young French journalists who are not infected by mullahs’ petrodollars.

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Iran, the quagmire of drug addiction


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The french version of this article :
- Iran : Enquête dégrisante sur les prix des stupéfiants
- (22 NOVEMBRE 2008)

| Mots Clefs | Fléaux : Toxicomanie |

| Mots Clefs | Fléaux : Statistiques déprimantes |

| Mots Clefs | Instituions : Economies Parallèles |

| Recherche Par Mots Clefs : SIDA |

| Recherche Par Mots Clefs : Prostitution juvénile |

[1Source : The daily economics newspaper SARMAYEH