Afghanistan Producing 84% of World’s Opium: Iran

Secretary of an anti-drug council in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan said Iran’s neighbour, Afghanistan, produces more than 84 percent of the world’s opium, a thick paste from poppy used to make heroin.

A report from ISNA quoted Zandi as saying that as many as 803 synthetic drugs have been created in the world and their production has jumped by 384 percent.

Around 800 servicemen have been martyred and 2,400 others injured in the war on drugs in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan alone, he added.

Iran shares a 900-kilometer border with Afghanistan and has been used as a main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.

Despite high economic and human costs, the Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug-trafficking over the past decades.

The country has spent more than $700 million on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.

The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past four decades.