Iraq Used For Transit Of Drugs, Officials Say

[Barrett808]

Iraq Used For Transit Of Drugs, Officials Say
Smuggling Arrests Up Since U.S. Invasion
By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 12, 2005; Page A22

BAGHDAD -- The manager of the addiction unit at Baghdad's largest treatment center for substance abusers took a long drag from his Craven cigarette and offered his assessment of the drug problem in Iraq.

"There is no drug problem in Iraq," said Abbas Fadhil Mahdi, a former brigadier general in Saddam Hussein's army who is now a psychiatrist at the capital's Ibn Rushud hospital.

"We have immunity against addiction," he continued. "Islam protects people from indulging in such illicit, harmful intake of substances. And unlike in the West and in America, we have cohesive and supportive extended families. So there is no problem with drugs."

Iraqi government officials and a U.N. agency that monitors drug trafficking disagree. Hamid Ghodse, president of the United Nations' International Narcotics Control Board, said that since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraq has become a transit point in the flow of hashish and heroin from Iran and Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of opium poppies, to Persian Gulf countries and Europe.

(more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/11/AR2005061100664.html?nav=rss_world

[DrDebug]

1. LMFAO. We have immunity from addiction

They said that in Iran as well. And now there are more than 1,000,000 heroin addicts and the figures are just as horrible in Afghanistan.

[tridim]

2. They should just do it like the American drug corporations..

Synthesize opioids and sell them to everyone (in pain or not) at an obscene profit. USA! USA! USA!

[DrDebug]

3. The problem in Iran is that it is cheap

And the drugs problem gets swept under the table. My figures were wrong it is 2,000,000 heroin addicts! And the rise in Aids is dramatic as well and rising rapidly.

Tackling Iran's heroin habit
By Sam Bagnall
Series producer, World Weddings

Iran has the highest proportion of heroin addicts in the world and a growing Aids problem.

In a country where discussing sex, drugs and Aids is taboo, two doctors tackle the stigma and help those who are suffering.

Maryam is just 21, from a small town outside Kermanshah in north western Iran.

Since contracting HIV from her husband - a heroin addict who recently died - her world has fallen apart.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/3791889.stm

8/14/03
DCHQ chief says Iran home to two million drug addicts

Secretary-General of the Drug Control Headquarters (DCHQ) Ali Hashemi said in Hamedan on Wednesday that Iran has over two million people addicted to various kinds of drugs, IRNA reported.

"Some 1.2 million are hardcore drug abusers while 800,000 are using drugs as pastime," he added.

Also, he said out of 270,000 heroin addicts, 140,000 are intravenous drug users (IDUs) and "65 percent of AIDS sufferers are also injecting drug addicts."

He said Tehran and Kermanshah provinces have the highest rates of addicts in comparison to the whole size of their population.

http://www.payvand.com/news/03/aug/1078.html

[LynnTheDem]

4. took a long drag from his cigarette ; "We have immunity against addiction

Great "immunity". Just like Iraq's "liberation".

[Kenneth ken]

7. I likethat line too

'cause every one knows cigarettes aren't drugs; nor are they addictive. :eyes:

[reprobate]

5. Well of course. The CIA is there, right? Cocaine Importation Authority

[Ezlivin]

6. Freedom's messy like that

When the photo below was taken, Rumsfeld was representing G.D. Searle & Co., a pharmaceutical company.

Is that ironic, or what? :shrug:

[norml]

8. Well, finally the Iraq War has something in it for me, HASH!

I could use a kilo of hash. Thanks Dubya!

[IndianaGreen]

9. "since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003"

Where is the outrage? The US has destroyed Iraqi society, and with it, has brought lawlessness to a nation that once prided itself in the achievement of its women.

Then we find people like Biden and Feinstein lecturing us about the need to continue the occupation of Iraq.

[bicentennial_baby]

10. Manager of addiction unit says...

there is no addiction in Iraq...:crazy:

[PurityOfEssence]

11. Guess we'd better invade 'em, huh?

That seems to be the default response to annoyances by these schmoes.

Har.