ient they are, Iran's border forces and police probably intercept no more than 30% of the drugs that enter the country. Junkies and aid workers alike suspect that the rise in opium prices has less to do with crop substitution and record hauls than it has to do with stockpiling. Moreover, the price of heroin, which is more addictive and more lethal than opium, has stayed absurdly cheap: one (highly adulterated) hit in Tehran costs 50 cents. Some of Mr Khatami's conservative opponents claim that "moral decay", fostered by his reformist allies, has made the epidemic worse. But the solution they propose, harsher sentencing, does not work. Over the past ten years, Iran has executed around 5,000 pushers. More than 90,000 people-some 60% of the prison population-are in jail on drugs offences. Yet the number of addicts continues to rise. Why are Iranians so susceptible to drugs? In the seedier parts of south Tehran, where the junkies have colonised parks and other open spaces, there is plenty of evidence of decay. But it is not so much the moral sort, as social and economic. The main reason, perhaps, is that Iranians are suffering from a profound sense of powerlessness. Article A72454649...
