Iran seizes highest amount of illicit drugs worldwide: UNODC
Yusef Jalali
Press TV, Tehran
It’s the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, and as of every year, Tehran has hosted officials from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and ambassadors of different countries to discuss ways to tackle the global crisis of drug trafficking.
Having Afghanistan as the world's largest opium producer on its east, Iran constantly clashes with drug gangs on its eastern borders. Since 1980, some 4,000 Iranian border guards have been killed in operations against drug smugglers.
For decades, Iran has played the role of a shield that blocks the flow of narcotics produced in Afghanistan and Pakistan and destined for Europe and the Persian Gulf.
However, Iran says the target countries have been sitting on their hands, leaving Tehran alone in the fight against the international crisis.
The UNOCD reports that Iran confiscates the highest amounts of illicit drugs in the world, including 90 percent of the world's smuggled opium, 48 percent of the world's morphine and 26 percent of heroine, with Europe being a major destination.
European countries have on different occasions admitted and lauded Iran's helpful role in curbing illicit narcotics in Europe.
However, Iran has time and again said that verbal thanking per se is not enough and the target countries must step up and help Tehran practically.
Iran says as long as there is demand in Western countries for narcotics, then the flood of drugs from Afghanistan and Pakistan will not stop. They say if Iran let all this amount of drug flow freely toward the West, the the world would realize what the country has been doing here for all these years.
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