Drug addiction among children under the age of 18 has increased by 100 percent over the past decade, says Iran’s Director of Research and Training Center for Combating Drugs.
ISNA reports that on Thursday October 23, Hamid Sarami said that studies comparing numbers in 2002 and 2011 point to a doubling of the number of drug addicts in Iran under 18, and also that three percent of the total number of people suffering from drug addiction are between the ages of 15 and 18.
He added that about 5.8 percent of drugs produced in Afghanistan have ended up in Iran in recent years, and about “four million people” have been arrested and sent to prison.
Sarami reported that the numbers indicate that 65.2 percent of the general population is involved in drug use. School-age children represent one percent and university students represent 6.2 percent.
