Iran where can I buy cocaine

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Iran where can I buy cocaine

Western Asia has long been a hotbed for various illicit drugs, including hashish, methamphetamine and Captagon. Cocaine, by contrast, has not gained a foothold in the region, despite continued increases in supply and demand worldwide. However, in recent years, there have been signs that Turkey may be becoming the next key cocaine transit hub. Although Turkish officials reported a 44 per cent increase in cocaine seizures between and , data on domestic consumption did not show a parallel increase, suggesting that the country is likely to serve as a drug corridor. In Western Asia, the infrastructure needed for cocaine to spread is already in place. However, it remains to be seen whether the drug will flood the regional market. This is especially true given that there is no shortage of alternatives. For cocaine suppliers from Latin America and Turkey to establish a significant presence in Western Asia, they would need, at a minimum, to align themselves with established drug traffickers in the region. This has been the case in Turkey, where Latin American groups capitalized on their expertise, resources and networks to establish a cocaine corridor stretching from Turkey to Europe, the Caucasus and Russia. This operation involved close collaboration with Turkish heroin traffickers and Balkan criminals , allowing them to leverage existing networks and knowledge from the long-standing heroin trade. It remains to be seen, however, whether cocaine suppliers can exploit such connections to reach the broader Western Asia region. Volatility in the region may well drive a quick need for cash, with the funding of conflict through drug trafficking becoming a vulnerability. Although cocaine may not be the preferred illicit substance among drug users in the region, there are some notable exceptions. In the Gulf states, as well as other hotspots in Lebanon and Israel , there are some vibrant consumer markets. In the Levant, cocaine use has reportedly increased among the growing middle and upper classes, and particularly young people. It is in these niche wealthy markets that the impact of a Turkish cocaine corridor would probably be most felt. However, UNODC findings do not reflect this, suggesting instead that smuggling activities appear to involve mainly foreign nationals with no apparent connection to Turkey catering to foreign individuals and expatriate communities. Similarly, seizures of cocaine being shipped from Turkey to Western Asia in have so far been remarkably low. Nevertheless, the Gulf remains the most likely candidate for an expanded cocaine market. In West Africa, high-ranking members of the group have been implicated in the cocaine trade between Latin America and Europe. Western Asia not only exports cocaine criminals, but also appears to afford them some protection. These individuals escape prosecution in their home countries and find opportunity for freedom in Gulf states. As the Gulf experiences an influx of cocaine expats, it is also witnessing the inflow of illicit proceeds from the drug trade. The real-estate boom in Dubai in recent years has been linked to the influx of illicit funds derived from the drug trade and other illicit activities. Even if Turkey were to further establish itself as a major cocaine corridor, it is unlikely that this would lead to an immediate surge of the drug in Western Asia. However, in the current context of instability and the drive for resources that come with it, this development may set the stage for the drug trade to introduce new dynamics and challenges to the region. The series explores, from a regional perspective, how drug trafficking is influenced by instability and broader geopolitics, the effects it has on local dynamics throughout illicit supply chains and its wider global impact. Sign up to our Western Asia mailing list. Author s Sarah Fares Laura Adal. Posted on 13 Oct Western Asia is perceived as playing a relatively minor role in the global cocaine trade. However, claims that Turkey may be emerging as a major cocaine corridor to Europe raise questions about a potential influx of the drug into the rest of Western Asia. Too many stakeholders For cocaine suppliers from Latin America and Turkey to establish a significant presence in Western Asia, they would need, at a minimum, to align themselves with established drug traffickers in the region. Opportunities in the Gulf? Related analysis.

Global initiative against transnational organized crime

Iran where can I buy cocaine

And certainly long before it, Iran experimented—perhaps more than any other country—with a wide range of policies to respond to widespread drug use and poppy cultivation, alternating between permissive and very harsh policies. What is perhaps most surprising is how little the Iranian revolution actually changed drug policies in Iran. And while the revolution did have pronounced effects on international drug markets, they were, once again, actually less than meets the eye. Importantly, for example, poppy production was bound to go up in Afghanistan regardless. From the 19th century up to the revolution, drug policy in Iran oscillated widely, running the gamut from legalization to harsh prohibition. Iranian narratives blame British machinations. It was for those economic reasons that Iran was loath to control its opium exports to China and elsewhere even though it had signed a variety of international commitments to that effect in the early 20th century. Even as China specifically banned the imports of Persian opium in , Iran encouraged its farmers and businessmen to export it there. Meanwhile, in the early part of the 20th century, opium abuse in Iran also dramatically increased. Still, by the s, Iran was estimated to have some 1. In , the shah imposed a total ban on cultivation and outlawed the possession and sale of opium. In a country where many rural areas had no medical facilities of any kind and opium was widely used as a universal medicine, the policy also severely impacted a wide range of medicinal practices. The economic and social hardships were great, even though use and addiction did not subside. Users and addicts were imprisoned for longer and longer periods: In , even the possession of poppy seeds, such as on bread, was criminalized with up to three years of imprisonment. Prohibition was systematically undermined by widespread smuggling of opium and heroin from Afghanistan and Turkey—an inevitable outcome, as the ban did not end demand and no treatment facilities and programs were in place. Thus, when they lost drugs to interdiction operations, they often looted Iranian rural settlements and dragged off villagers into Afghanistan. Once again under a state monopoly, poppy cultivation swung back to 20, ha. Some , addicts, those deemed unable to quit because of age or other physical conditions, were given registration cards to obtain state-provided opium. At least , officially estimated users , however, did not end up on the registration list, and the actual addiction rate was believed much higher. A notorious chief justice of the Revolutionary Tribunals and simultaneously head of the Anti-Drugs Revolutionary Council, Sadeq Khalkhali, previously a minor cleric, sentenced to death at least drug dealers during his month reign in , along with the hundreds of others whom he had arbitrarily executed for imagined offenses with zero due process. The use of capital punishment for drug crimes intensified after , and some 10, people have received the death penalty for drug-related offenses since then. The revolution also ended domestic experimentation with legal cultivation of poppy. Opium and methadone maintenance were discontinued, but no other treatment for widespread addiction was available. And once again, outsiders moved to supply the intense demand for drugs. By then, Turkey had effectively legalized its opium production and prevented diversion into the illegal trade, with the United States committing itself to buy a substantial portion of such legal Turkish opium. So drug smuggling into Iran shifted to Pakistan. Critically, opiate production switched robustly to Afghanistan and—along with CIA money from the mids on—funded the mujahideen who fought the invading Soviet Army. To starve the mujahideen and deprive them of food and shelter among the population, the Soviet Army adopted a scorched-earth policy. In order to drive the rural population into cities which they controlled , the Soviets burned orchards and fields and destroyed water canals. The consequence was a significant increase in poppy cultivation: Simply no other crop could survive the harsh weather and lack of water and fertilizers. Unlike legal goods that needed to be processed, and depended on good roads and legal value-added chains and markets, harvested opium resin would not spoil. It was of little comfort to the Afghan people that the heroin production flourishing in the destroyed land also got the Soviet Army extensively addicted. The s Taliban policy of taking an already impoverished and devastated country back to the 9th century—with systematic destruction of administration and socio-economic facilities—had one key outcome: more and more poppy. It has remained the dominant supplier of illegal organic opiates since. Seventeen years of U. Despite the dramatic political developments in and a series of wide policy swings for over a century, drug use in Iran has remained remarkably stubborn. Prisons abound with users: In , 78, people were imprisoned in Iran on drug-related charges; in , the number was , In the mids, Iran and the United States shared a similar rate of imprisonment for drug users, some of the highest rates in the world. The revolution transformed the socio-political context: Alcohol was prohibited for all other than religious minorities, severe restrictions were imposed on social interaction among unrelated men and women, and few opportunities existed for personal self-fulfillment. These developments likely exacerbated drug use. Perhaps the most significant and detrimental effect of greater penalties and intensified efforts at supply control after the revolution has been the switch to hard drugs. Because it is compact and easier to hide, heroin is easier to smuggle than opium. Thus, although the rate of addiction in Iran may be half of what it was in the s, the severity of addiction and its associated effects worsened. The failures of harsh policies periodically resurrect reforms. Methadone maintenance came back into vogue , with some , receiving methadone in Such progressive reforms, however, weakened during the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad years, and treatment facilities and harm-reduction support systems are still hard to come by, particularly for women , while social stigma and fear of law enforcement persist. In January , Iran raised the amount of drugs in possession that triggers the death penalty from a mere 30 grams of heroin, morphine, and cocaine, and 5kg of cannabis and opium, to more than 50kg of opium, 2 kg of heroin, and 3 kg of crystal meth. The change allowed around 5, people on death row to have their cases reviewed , with the prospect of having their sentences commuted to imprisonment or fines. The death penalty for marijuana possession and trafficking has been completely eliminated. And in the spirit of marijuana-legalizing times, a proposal even sought to decriminalize opium and marijuana and introduce state-controlled cultivation. With Afghan opium poppy blooming on its doorstep and its own addiction unabating, Iran has sought to prevent trafficking into the country. Annually, it carries out some to armed interdiction operations. Around 4, Iranian police officers and border guards have lost their lives in counternarcotics operations. Amid growing insecurity in Afghanistan and many economic and governance challenges to legal economic development, those efforts fared as well—or poorly— as U. But even as Iran has devoted vast resources to supply control, suffered widespread addiction, and railed against Western failures to end poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, a variety of state and Iran-sponsored actors have been implicated in drug trafficking. The U. As Felbab-Brown learned during interviews in Iraq in December , Iranian-sponsored paramilitary groups in Iraq are alleged to smuggle heroin from Iran and captagon from Syria into Iraq. Foreign Policy. Sections Sections. Sign Up. Vanda Felbab-Brown and. Bradley S. Related Books Militants, Criminals, and Warlords. Iran Reconsidered. Related Content Another embassy under siege. Pakistan Another embassy under siege Madiha Afzal January 24, More On. The power of Mexican cartels: In Mexico and abroad.

Iran where can I buy cocaine