Some 2,500 tonnes of narcotics enter Iran from neighbouring Afghanistan annually, more than a quarter of which are consumed in the Islamic republic, an anti-drugs official said on Sunday. "Afghanistan produces 8,200 tonnes of narcotics, 2,500 of which enter Iran," the Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Reza Jahani, deputy head of Iran's anti-narcotics organisation, as saying.
"Of this amount, 700 tonnes are consumed in the country, 500 tonnes are seized by the police and the rest, which is about 1,300 tonnes, is transited through the country," he said.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has said that Afghanistan's opium production increased from 6,100 tonnes in 2006 to 8,200 tonnes in 2007, accounting for 93 percent of global production.
Iran lies on a major narcotics route from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Turkey and Europe, and Tehran says it needs more funds to combat trafficking across its porous eastern borders. It has hanged smugglers, dug trenches and built walls across the border and lost hundreds of police and military forces in its battle against traffickers. With cheap heroin available at 3.5 dollars (2.4 euros) per gram, according to the United Nations, the country faces a serious drug abuse problem with an official two million drug addicts - 250,000 of whom are intravenous heroin users.