Iran - How to reduce drug-related crimes? Issuing coupons for opium distribution might hold the solution.

Iran - How to reduce drug-related crimes? Issuing coupons for opium distribution might hold the solution. (Taz).

An Iranian official says that issuing coupons for opium distribution is a right solution to the growing drug-related crimes in the country.

Ali Hashemi, who chairs an anti-drugs committee at Iran’s State Expediency Council, said Feb. 20 that it was a right measure to issue opium coupons to manage the opium demand in the country, reports the ISNA news agency.

He explained that before the 1979 revolution, Iran, while under the rule of the Pahlavi dynasty, was issuing opium coupons to manage drug consumption, which was a successful practice in terms of reducing drug-related crimes.


After the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic stopped the controlled distribution of opium in the country saying this was against laws and the Sharia, the legal framework regulating public and some private aspects of life based on Islam. Read the full story here.

Video - Afghanistan's 'Opium Brides'

PBS Frontline: Afghanistan's 'Opium Brides' .The safest place in the world to grow opium is in the Taliban controlled territories of Afghanistan. In areas that are not controlled by the Taliban, the Afghan government is destroying poppy crops. Loans for those crops, however, were provided by drug traffickers (the most successful banking system in Afghanistan). When the government destroys the crops, traffickers demand that the loans be repaid, often by handing over young daughters (the "Opium Brides"). Since the Taliban continues to use the opium trade as a primary source of revenue, while the rest of Afghanistan is attempting to grow far less valuable crops, it isn't difficult to see which side is going to be more powerful in the future. In PBS Frontline's "Opium Brides," Najibullah Quraishi journeys deep into the Afghan countryside to reveal the deadly bargain local farm families have been forced to make with drug smugglers in order to survive. HT: AnsweringMuslims.