Iraqi commission announces national drug abuse, arrest figures

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A member Iraq's Human Rights Commission on Wednesday announced this year's national drug abuse and trafficking information so far for 2020, excluding the Kurdistan Region.

"Drug trafficking and abuse have become a phenomenon that threatens the family and society. The main factors that have led to an increase in drug use are economic, social, and psychological reasons, as well as higher rates of domestic violence and the general security situation," said Fadhel al-Gharawi in a statement.

He added that "the number of people arrested and convicted in cases of the drug trade and abuse for the year 2018 reached 9,328 cases, while in 2019 only 6,407 cases were recorded. As for the year 2020, from the beginning of the year until Sept. 1, 2020, the number of detainees and convicts in cases of the drug trade and abuse reached 4,594 with the exception of the Kurdistan Region.”

The four provinces administered by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have their own drug enforcement agencies and forces, so were excluded from the national figures.

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“According to the data, crystal and captagon 0-1 are the most widely used industrial materials for drug abuse in Iraq," Gharawi continued.

It should be noted that there is often confusion about the term "crystal" since it is commonly used as the local name for two different highly-addictive drugs. One is methamphetamine, known in much of the world as crystal meth, but it can also refer to high-purity street-level heroin, sometimes called kerack.

Captagon was first manufactured in 1961 as an alternative to amphetamines and methamphetamines, but has more recently become a commonly-abused drug in pill form in the Middle East.

Al-Gharawi called on the government and its security institutions to "start a campaign to prosecute organized crime gangs and deal with water and land passages that still represent a crossing point for drug trafficking," stressing the importance of "establishing addiction treatment clinics, tightening penalties for drug traffickers, and starting a national campaign to educate the public about drug dangers."

Iraqi and Kurdish authorities often intercept shipments of such drugs passing through Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, mainly in the provinces of Basra, Diyala, Erbil, and Sulaimani. Most of it is smuggled into the country through its borders with Iran and include heroin, opium, marijuana, methamphetamines, and various pills on their way to Turkey, Syria, and ultimately Europe and North America.

Editing by John J. Catherine