Iranian President Calls for Int'l Cooperation against Illicit Drugs
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani asked all countries and international organizations to partake in the fight against illicit drugs and adopt policies to prevent production and transit of narcotics.
In a message issued on the occasion of June 26, the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Rouhani suggested a number of anti-drug measures to the international community, including paying attention to "an alternative source of livelihood for the people living in the main areas of cultivation and production of drugs".
He added that the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is an opportunity "to spread awareness and garner public support against the devastating damage of drugs."
The Iranian chief executive further said that being a neighbor of Afghanistan, which is the main source of cultivation and production of narcotics, Iran is suffering the highest rates of human losses and the destructive consequences of drug trafficking and addiction.
In recent decades, Iran has been hit by drug trafficking, mainly because of its 936-kilometer shared border with Afghanistan, in which more than 90% of the world's opium is produced.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Islamic Republic is netting eight times more opium and three times more heroin than all other countries in the world combined.
The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 3,700 Iranian police officers over the past 30 years.
