It is impossible to understand the Iran Region without having some understanding of poppy power. It is funding war, and sentencing at least five million people to an early death. The Church in Asia has had a traditional role of providing good health facilities. This now needs to be expanded to include drug rehabilitation.
Note: This article was written in 2001
Philip Simpson
The area known as the Golden Crescent, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, produces more opium and heroin than anywhere else in the world. Afghanistan is at the heart of the region's drug problem, producing over 4,500 metric tonnes of opium in 1999, by far the largest amount in the world1.
The ascendancy of the Golden Crescent as the world's leading drug supplier can be dated from 1979 when there was a bumper crop of opium in the Golden Crescent and a crop-failure in the Golden Triangle (Burma, Laos & Thailand)2. At the same time the region was thrown into political upheaval by the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution in Iran which made Pakistan become the only conduit for the export of drugs to the West. This inevitably led to an increase in the arms trade which was financed by drugs.
Most of the opium grown in the region is turned into heroin. This is produced when morphine is extracted from the unripe seedpods of the poppy and treated with acetic anhydride. This pure heroin gives a much more powerful 'high' than normal opium, and because of the high productivity, is by far the cheapest substance in the region.
The Afghanistan opium harvest directly affects the West, as about a third of the heroin makes its way to Europe and beyond, mainly via Iran; or through the former CIS states and Russia; or through Karachi. Since the Taliban authorities charge a 20% tax on all opium grown, it is not surprising they encourage its production to bring in vital revenue. It is estimated to earn up to 8 billion US dollars a year for the Taliban, which is administered by Osama bin Laden3.
Ahmad Rashid4 recounts a meeting with the head of Taliban's anti-drugs control force in Kandahar in 1998. In it he demonstrated the strange logic of the Taliban 'Opium is permissible because it is consumed by kafirs (unbelievers) in the West and not by Muslims or Afghans'. The Taliban clearly see the drugs trade as a way to undermine the West.
A drug-drenched Region
However by far the most tragic affect of the cynical drugs-for-arms policy sanctioned by the Taliban and others, is on the people of the region. As an official report from Germany states: 'About half of the opium produced in Southwest Asia is consumed in Pakistan and Iran. This does not include drug use in Afghanistan, for which no data are available.'5 This makes the Iran Region of the 'Golden Crescent', the most drug drenched in the world.
Even though Iran has one of the toughest anti-narcotics policies in the world, where anyone caught with a few ounces of heroin automatically faces the death penalty, the official figure is still one million6. Mahmood Alizadeh Tabatabatai, a member of the Tehran City Council, believes this is a very conservative figure and using estimates of the numbers of drug dealers in prison, he puts the figure at 2 million.
It is impossible to obtain exact figures for Afghanistan. The UN estimate there are up to 2 million users, not including Afghans addicts in the refugee camps of Pakistan and Iran7. A visit from a medical team to a village in the Wakhan district of Badakshan makes these figures more real. There were 67 families in the village: all but four were regular users of opium.8 Across this whole area, the team estimated that 20 - 30% of the population were addicted.
With officially two and a half million addicts, Pakistan has the highest number in the region. As one social worker in Peshawar said - 'Drugs are like vegetables here. Very cheap and infinitely available.' As well as the heroin that comes down from Afghanistan for export from Karachi, over 100 metric tonnes are produced in Pakistan itself, in the North West Frontier province. So the country is awash with heroin. No wonder a report for the German government concluded - 'In terms of the amount of heroin consumed (80 metric tonnes), Pakistan is probably the largest market for heroin world wide.'9
So throughout the region, an estimate of around 5 - 6 million addicts is not unreasonable. This would be the same as saying that the entire population of Norway were heroin addicts.
The Cost of Addiction
Though opium and hashish have been used socially, mainly as a medicine, for years in this region - heroin has not. The tragedy in recent years is that millions have switched from opium to heroin, as it is cheaper and gives a better 'high'. For these people and their families, life is hell on earth.
Three factors contribute to this hell: (i) the economic cost of the habit; (ii) impact on health; and (iii) the associated shame.
Throughout the region, families are deprived of essential food because a meagre income is spent on drugs. So in Pakistan in 1993, drug spending absorbed 65% of the family income. In a study of female refugee opium uses interviewed by the UN, 80% said addiction 'damaged the family's money situation'10. The Non Government Organisation, Orphans Refugees and Aid (ORA) International, estimate that in Afghanistan the cost of a drug user's habit each year is financially equivalent to four months food consumption for a 10 -12 member household.11 In Iran, where standards of living are much higher than Afghanistan and Pakistan, addiction has not so often affected people's diet, but it has eaten away at life savings for others in the family.
The overall impact on health is brutal: due to malnourishment, Hepatitis and swapping needles, addicts die young. It is impossible to measure the torture of shame - but it is perhaps the worst part of the addiction. In Pakistan and Afghanistan there is the shame of the male addicts not providing for their families. In Iran in addition to this, there is the shame of prison as the government takes a much more determined stance against drugs. Given the importance of family reputation in the Iranian culture, prison, for a son or daughter, is totally devastating.
A true story from the region illustrates the suffering addicts face:
‘Mar Jan left Afghanistan for Iran to make enough money to marry. In Iran he became a heroin addict so he couldn't return to Afghanistan. Instead he went to Peshawar in Pakistan. 'I was useless. I had dirty shoes, dirty clothes, and no one would let me into their home. I slept under a bridge for eight years and would eat thrown away food. Once I was accused of stealing and a policeman beat me on my head with his gun…There was no place for me to go… and no-one to help me except God….’
Solutions
In the light of all this what, if anything, can be done?
The leader of a drug rehabilitation project in Pakistan uses this analogy: 'Imagine a truck were running amok down a high street, knocking loads of people over. What would you do? Would you want to help the victims, try to stop the truck or run ahead with a red flag, shouting a warning to those as yet unaffected'
This illustrates the three main ways of dealing with the drug problem.
•
Stopping the truck is the equivalent of trying to stop drug production. This is mainly the job of governments through law enforcement.
•
Helping the victims being hit by the truck is the equivalent of trying to reduce the demand for drugs. This happens mainly by the rehabilitation of addicts and is often the job of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
•
Waving the red flag in front of the truck is the equivalent of trying to warn others about the danger of drug use. This is often the work of the community and private individuals.
Control: Reducing the Supply
Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan do not have the same policies towards drug production. The Iranian authorities have waged a determined war against the heroin trade since the 1979 revolution. Before then, the country produced opium, since then production has been halted. A recent report from IRNA (Iranian Republic Narcotics Authority) states: 'No licit or illicit cultivation of narcotic plants is reported to take place in the territory of Iran. No reports seem to indicate the existence of illicit drug manufacturing in the I.R. of Iran.' Not only was production stopped, but there has also been a determined campaign to halt drug trafficking. Around 200 metric tonnes of opiates are seized every year and about 5,000 dealers have been executed since 198912. Controlling the drug trade is a formidable challenge because of the 2,000 km border with Afghanistan. No one can accuse the Iranians of not rising to this challenge. They have fortified the border with deep ditches, dams in the passes, patrol towers and armed police, who are ready to challenge the traffickers. According to Ahmad Rashid13, 'Since 1980 Iran has lost 2500 men from its security forces in military operations to stop convoys carrying drugs from Afghanistan. After Iran closed its borders with Afghanistan during the tensions with the Taliban in September 1998, Iranian security forces captured five tons of heroin on the border in a few weeks'.
Hashemi Shahroudi, the Chief of the Iranian Judiciary puts the financial cost of the war against drugs at $11 million - $9 million for fortifying the border with Afghanistan, and $2 million for running costs. One drug expert in Iran, Mahmood Alizadeh Tabatabaie, has even suggested that Iran simply buys all the opium from Afghanistan and burns it - 'This outcome is more suitable and desirable than the predicament we are now confronting and the 7000 billion Rials (less than a million dollars) that we are now annually spending fruitlessly on the war against drugs.'14
In contrast to Iran, both the Pakistan and Afghanistan governments have been implicated in the drug trade since 1979. Sources suggest that President Zia gave permission for profits from heroin to be used to arm the Mujahadeen fighting the Soviets, and it would appear that this policy has been pursued by nearly every other Pakistan government since then15. With the defeat of the Soviets, profits have been re-directed to the war in Kashmir and, until September 11th, to aiding the Taliban, which the Pakistan intelligence agency helped create. There are reports that the Taliban have stockpiled huge amounts of opium to pour into the export markets to finance military action.16
Cure: Reducing the Demand
Both governments and non-government organisations (NGOs) get involved in the treatment of addicts. In Afghanistan there is just one government rehabilitation centre in Kabul; this can only accommodate 12 cases at a time. According to doctors working there, resources were 'next to non-existent.' Treatment is not very sophisticated - one patient was simply chained to his bed to keep him from running away during his withdrawal symptoms17.
Ahmad Rashid, a Pakistani journalist, records another method, as described to him by a member of the Taliban: 'When we catch hashish smugglers or addicts we interrogate and beat them mercilessly to find out the truth. Then we put them in cold water for many hours, two or three times a day. Its a very good cure. The Taliban official then strolled into the jail and pulled out several terrified prisoner-addicts to talk to me. They had no hesitation in agreeing that the Taliban's shock therapy was effective. “When I am beaten or in the cold water I forget all about hashish”, said Bakht Mohammad a shopkeeper and hashish dealer who was serving 3 months in jail.’
Foreign NGOs in Afghanistan have been much more successful. ORA International managed three detoxification clinics in the Badakhshan province which were treating up to 900 opium users each year - men women and children.
In Pakistan there are about 150 government detoxification clinics, however there has been some doubt about the approach of these clinics. In response the United Nations has recently released over half a million US dollars to open a further 17 clinics whose approach will be more holistic. Whether this money will be well spent or not remains to be seen.
A dozen Christian NGO's in Pakistan, operating centres in a number of major cities, have formed a national body called DAWN (Drug Addiction Workers' Network) and again have enjoyed more success than many government clinics.
In Iran there are 100 outpatient treatment centres with 350 specialist staff and the government claim that over 100,000 have been detoxified during the last three years. However those with experience of trying to help addicts in Iran would not be so optimistic about these centres. This is mainly because their approach is to lock people up for a few days and then release them. Inevitably they soon relapse, returning to old habits and patterns of drug use. One church in Iran has a specialist programme for helping addicts.
Caution: Reducing vulnerability
The other response is to raise awareness of the dangers of drugs in communities and institutions. This often focuses on educating youth and children usually in the context of helping them to make choices. In Dushanbe, Tajikistan, a Nigerian Doctor is working with ORA to raise awareness of the connection between drugs and HIV/AIDS. He has established a varied programme of talks in schools and hospitals, advertising campaigns, competitions, videos, dramas, posters and films on TV. 'A female medical student who participated in our seminar', he reports, 'drew a picture of a candle, with some baby-like angelic beings and wrote IT IS BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE THAN TO CURSE THE DARKNESS. Addiction is like darkness and is widespread. Instead of accepting defeat, every human being should play his or her role, no matter how small, in order to bring a solution to the problem.'
The Power of Prayer and the Power of the Poppy
Whatever the outcome of the present 'war on terrorism and drugs', addiction in the Iran Region will be an open wound for many years to come.
Almost every extended family in the region will know someone whose life has been ruined by heroin. The pain of those immediately involved is all consuming. Every waking hour of the addict is spent thinking about where they can get their next shot; every hour of the family is spent thinking about how they can free their loved one from the addiction.
Here is an opportunity for Christians as the Church in this region, notably in Pakistan and Iran, has had a traditional role of serving the whole community through providing education and health facilities. Drug rehabilitation clinics obviously fall into this category. And there is substantial evidence that Christian-based rehabilitation projects worldwide have a much higher success rate than secular ones.
The 12-step programmes of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) are based on Christian principles of forgiveness and restitution and have been very successful. Jackie Pullinger's rehabilitation programme in Hong Kong is world famous18, and there have also been successful programmes operating in Pakistan. A church run programme in Karachi called IBTIDA (meaning 'Beginning' in Persian and Urdu) offers treatment to addicts not on the basis of creed, but on the basis of need. At IBTIDA meetings Christians, Muslims and Hindus, all 'in the same boat', come together to seek release from their addiction through prayer. There is no pressure for the addict to convert - but they see that the power of prayer in the name of Jesus Christ can overcome the power of the poppy.
Another successful drug rehabilitation programme in the wider Iran region is in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Here Australian, Doug Boyle, started a programme based on the Teen Challenge curriculum. It is very strict and Bible focused, with a major emphasis on prayer and fasting. The programme started with 12 addicts: there are now over 400. The majority of the addicts who have graduated from the three-year programme are now drug-free. Many of them have become Christian workers and are playing a vital role in the growth of the church in Kazakhstan.
As the Pakistan government already allows Christians to operate drug rehabilitation clinics, and given the extent of the need, it is possible that the Iranian government would also allow church-based clinics for the Christian minorities. These could then provide a service for the wider community. An opportunity for Muslims and Christians to work together to build a better society, combating a common social evil.
Mar Jan, the addict who ended up in Peshawar sleeping under a bridge, was helped by three workers from ORA's NEJAT project. They talked about the hazards of heroin and asked him to become a friend ('dost'). 'I couldn't believe it, how could they be friends with someone like me. The smell from my head wound (from the beating he had received from the police) was so bad that no one could be around me. I went with my new friends and they made me have a bath, they dressed my head wound and cleaned out the lice, and I was admitted into their rehabilitation centre. Now I am well and my head injury is completely healed. I am working as a volunteer at the NEJAT centre. My previous drug user friends do not even recognize me. They think that Mar Jan died.'
Philip Simpson is a drug rehabilitation specialist, with many years experience working in the ‘Golden Crescent’.
1
UNDCP 1999 Annual Poppy Survey, UNDCP Programme, Islamabad. 4,581 tonnes in 1999; 3,656 tonnes in 2000 and 76 tonnes in 2001
2Afghanistan now produces 70.4% of the world's opium, Burma 23.4%; Laos 3.6%; and others 0.7%
3See Yossef Bodansky's biography of Osama bin Laden (Primapublishers, USA), page 315
4
High on Heroin: Drugs and the Taliban Economy in Ahmad Rashid: 'Taliban: Islam Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia' (IB Taurus, 2000)
5
GTZ , Drugs and Development in Asia (1998)
6
Government figures give the following breakdown - Age of abusers: 68.1 per cent aged between 20 and 40 years of age. Main age of drug abusers: 33.6 (+/-10.5) for males and 37.7 for females (the youngest drug abuser reported in this study was 12 years old). Gender: 93.4 per cent male - 6.6 per cent female Marital status: 56.7 per cent married - 34.6 per cent single Literacy rate: 12.4 per cent illiterate, 33.8 per cent middle school education. Occupation:24.4 per cent labourers; 20.5 per cent unemployed: Source of income for drugs: a major proportion of the interviewed reported illegal means of income as well as being supported by their families. Source (IRIN)
7
United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) Afghanistan, 1999. It also reports that a high percentage of addicts in Quetta and Peshawar were Afghans.
8 The medical team was from Focus Canada., visiting an Ishmaeli area in 1997. Quoted in 1999 ORA (Orphans, Refugees and Aid) International report.
9
GTZ , Drugs and Development in Asia (1998)
10
United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) Afghanistan, 1999.
11
ORA Central Asia Report, 1999
12
See Payame Emrooz, Dec 2000, no 42. 'Drugs in the Iran Region' by Kamal Aqaie
13 High on Heroin : Drugs and the Taliban Economy in Ahmad Rashid : 'Taliban: Islam Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia' (IB Taurus, 2000)
14
Payame Emrooz, Dec. 2000, No 42 - Drugs in the Iran Region by Kamal Aqaie
15
For example see Altaf Gauhar's article 'Drugs, Army and the Bank' in the Pakistani publication 'Politics and Business', September 28th, 1994
16
One by-product of the current war against Afghanistan may be the supervised destruction of the opium fields in Afghanistan, and Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. This would need to be in conjunction with the implementation of an alternative agricultural programme to avoid economic collapse in the region.
17 Quoted in a IRIN report, May 2000