Opium And Smuggling A Problem For Iran

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31923, 26 February 1969, Page 11

Opium And Smuggling A Problem For Iran

(Specially written for “The Press” by

RALPH JOSEPH

TEHERAN. • A German tourist was gaoled in Teheran recently on a charge of smuggling 40 kilograms of opium into Iran from Turkey. He told a friend who went to visit him in gaol that he was being well looked after. He was getting wholesome meals and had a comfortable bed a comfortable bed, and the police and had a comfortable bed and the police were taking care of his car for him until his six-month term expired.

What the police did not know, he said, was that they were also carefully looking after another 48 kilograms of opium for him—hidden away in the car.

The laugh was on the police, of course. But they themselves are the first to admit that only about 5 to 10 per cent of opium and other narcotics smuggled into Iran is ever detected.

The police, in fact, have become so exasperated that one day last summer the police chief, General Mohsen Mobasser, told the Premier, Mr Amir Abbas Hoveida, that smuggling was on the increase in Iran and that as long as neighbouring countries—Turkey and Afghanistan in particular—continued to permit poppy cultivation, ■it would be difficult to prevent opium and heroin being smuggled into Iran. Mr Hoveida waited three 'months. Then in autumn he took advantage of an Interpol conference here to announce [that unless the United Nations took action to stop Turkey and Afghanistan from producing opium, Iran would reintroduce poppy cultivation —banned here since 1955.

Poppy Cultivation

As though to show that Iran meant business, the government announced its decision last December to resume poppy cultivation anyway. A bill is now going through Parliament permitting limited production of opium "for medical purposes,” and experts have already been dispatched to the markets of Europe to : purchase good quality poppy seed. | Iran claims that ever since 'she banned poppy cultivation [here, the country has been ’losing $3O to $4O million a year, formerly earned from the export of opium, said to have been in great demand in the world market for its "superior quality.” In fact, opium smuggling into Iran since the ban has led to an estimated drain of $lO million lin gold and foreign currency. 'The resumption of opium production here, then, would mean a net gain of some $5O million a year in foreign exchange, which even in oilrich Iran is a considerable amount. Anyway, some 'sources claim, Turkey earns as much as $4OO million a (year from opium sales annually. Reintroduction of poppy [cultivation here, officials believe, will also relax pressure of the gaols. Police claim that the gaols are fairly ; choked with people convicted of either dope smuggling or 'peddling and that they have dossiers on some 18,000 suspects, including addicts.

Smuggling Lucrative In the 13-odd years of the opium ban here, smuggling has become so lucrative that whole villages exist in West Azerbaijan near the Turkish ; border where the visible population consists of only : women and children. The ; menfolk are away on dop- ■ smuggling missions, or must r remain hidden from the police, who can only net some of them when they attempt clandestine visits to their wives at night. It is usually the agents and couriers who get caught. The financiers and ring-leaders remain in the background, and are said

to earn enough to be able to I support a courier’s family if he gets gaoled On the Afghan border, clashes between Iranian police and armed Afghan smugglers have become almost a daily occurrence. On one occasion last October a small caravan of Afghan smugglers tried crossing the terrible Lut Desert and lost their way after a sandstorm. Seven out of nine of them died of thirst after wandering several days in the desert. Thousands Of Addicts While poppy growing may reduce the profits of smuggling, it will do little to solve the addiction problem in Iran. Officials estimate that there are some 250.000 to 300,000 opium addicts and 10,000 heroin addicts in the country, consuming about 500 kilograms of opium a day (roughly two to three grams a person a day). As some have been asking, wouldn’t the re-introduction of poppy cultivation here intensify the addiction problem, especially among farmers? To meet the problem, the government ■ is planning to impose stricter punishment for addiction and peddling I the stuff. Farmers especially

will be watched, and anyone of them found guilty of addiction will have his land taken away from him. It may be a neat bureaucratic way of solving the problem, but some liberals here have been wondering aloud whether this would be an altogether humane one. Anyway, officials shrug, the cultivation will be done under government surveillance.