Addiction Among Iranian Children Has Drastically Multiplied

RoozOnline

Iran has only one center for the treatment of drug addicted children and it operates on an experimental basis. Statistics released during a seminar on addiction among children and youth indicates that the problem among children is growing at a very alarming pace. One center that works on the problem of addicted children announced at the seminar that among a specific group of children that it had studied drug addiction multiplied four times within the short period of four months. This group of children included those that were under the age of one year and who inherited the addiction from their addicted mothers.

The seminar on addiction was organized by the Jamiat Emdad Daneshjooi Mardomi Imam Ali and was held in Tehran on February 15 and 16, 2015. According to Zahra Rahimi, the managing director of this non-governmental group, “The very fact that we now hear of a (governmental) camp for children indicates that the issue has been communicated to the higher ups. The problem however is that we always let problems turn into a full blown crisis and then try to find solutions for it.”

Ms. Rahimi believes that the combination of children and drug addiction is a serious problem with serious consequences for society.

Speaking on the second day of the seminar, Sharmin Meymandinejad, the founder of this group, expressed her concerns about the rapid growth of addiction among children. “If the government could stop the trade in drugs just for one day, we would respect that. Otherwise it should let us do our job as a non-governmental organization,” she pleaded.

The secretary of the seminar Maryam Kiani presented the findings of a three-year study in 10 provinces of Tehran, Alborz, Mazandaran, Khorasan Razavi, Khorasan Jonoobi, Bushehr, Bandar Abbas, Golestan, Zanjan, and Kerman. Half the children in the study are not documented and contrary to the views that officials who believe that addicted children are Afghans and immigrants, only 24 percent of the children in the study were immigrants and the rest Iranians.

The following were the conclusions of the study on 116 children:

· 4% became addicts because of gang pressure within work groups

· 42% became addicts through the consumption of their mother’s milk

· 10% through friends

· 35% because of family issues

Regarding factors that caused addiction:

· 54% became addicts because of coercion and were forced to

· 9% because of bad family role models

· 7% out of curiosity and ignorance

· 6% voluntarily

The study also looked at the parents of the addicted children and here are its findings:

· 80% of the parents were addicts themselves

· 9% had deceased parents

· 3% had sick parents

· 3% had left their homes and their parents

· 25% of the parents were workers

· 22% were unemployed

· 14% were drug traffickers

· 3% were worked as guards or other occupations

· 23% were addicted to the shisha (hookah) tobacco

· 23% were addicted to heroin and shisha

· 15% were addicted to shisha and opium

· The remaining were involved with other drugs

The following were the findings about the mothers of the addicted children:

· 62% were addicts

· 22% were the head of the family

· 9% were deceased

· 3% had left the family and the home

· The remaining were engaged in prostitution

· 27% were beggars

· 19% were housewives

· 11% were drug traffickers

· 7% were workers

· 4% worked as garbage collectors

· 36% were addicted to shisha

· 16% were addicted to heroin and shisha

· 15% were addicted to shisha and opium

· 11% were addicted to opium

· 3% were addicted to heroin

According to Kiani, “34% of these children lived in Tehran, 30% in Khorasan Razavi, 8% in Mazandaran, 12% in Khorasan Jonoobi, 5% in Kerman and 3% in Alborz provinces. Even though the province of Zahedan was not part of our study, according to information provided by the social welfare organization of the province, 300 addicted children live in the region.”

The other alarming statistics that were exchanged at the seminar included the following:

· 34% of the addicted children were born addicted

· 20% had become addicted through their mother’s milk

· 16% were addicted to shisha

· 33% were addicted to heroin

· 51% used opium

Of all the children studied, only 7% were in contact with the social welfare organization and the rest did not. 36% of the children were engaged in the narcotics trade while 64% had no involvement with the traffickers. Only 10% of these children had taken an AIDS test.

Other figures that emerged from the seminar and have been categorized by Rooz are as follows:

33% of the children were not engaged in any work activity, while 67% were engaged in work

36% had not gone to school

31% were under school age

13% were enrolled in school

20% had dropped out of school

73% were boys, while 27% were girls

It should be noted that despite these numbers, one cannot conclude that fewer girls become addicted because boys use drugs outside the home while girls stay at home because of the abuse they are subjected to.

18% of the children are under the age of one year

24% are between the ages of 2 and 6 years

32% are between the ages of 7 and 13 years

10% are between the ages of 14 and 18 years