Iran’s Addiction Rate Is Growing Three Times Faster Than the Population

Iran’s Addiction Rate Is Growing Three Times Faster Than the Population

Farzaneh Sohrabi, Social deputy of the CUDRAS institute, previously announced that the growth of addiction in Iran is three times more than the growth of the population. This rate of growth alone shows the depth of the disaster that is an addiction in Iran.

The question is, is this statistic real?

Farzaneh Sohrabi said: “The growth of addiction in the country is three times the population growth. The growth of addiction in the country has been about eight percent annually, while the population of the country in the most optimistic state has grown by about 2 percent; As a result, the number of addicts seems to be growing by more than 3% annually.”

About the population growth in Iran the state-run news agency MEHR in May 2020, quoting the “Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution,” wrote: “The population growth rate of Iran in 2019 is below 1 percent.”

It means that Iran had 1.196 million newborns in 2019, which is 170,000 less than in 2018. In 2017, the number of newborns was 1.366 million.

Sohrabi added that “the statistics show us that between 5 to 7 million people in the country, had on at least one occasion experienced addiction.”

But Iran’s government tries to engineer the statistics to cover up the reality. Ali Hashemi, Chairman of the Independent Anti-Narcotics Committee of the Expediency Council, has announced the number of addicts prior to 2006 as 3.760 million people and said: “But suddenly the statistics of the government shrunk to 750,000 to 800,000 people in a population of 70 million. The last statistics that were announced about the number of addicts was in 2011 which was 1.330 million addicts in a population of 75 million people.”

Hashemi then added: “In the eight years of the presidency of Ahmadinejad, this number gradually reached 1.350 million people. While with this engineering of the statistics they accept that in the ninth and tenth government, addiction has increased about 100 percent. According to the prevalence of addiction, which was done by the headquarters itself, in 2011 the number of four million addicts in the country is true, but the then head of the government did not allow the publishing of the results.”

From 2011 to 2017 the government announced the statistics of the addicts to be 1.330 million during that time. After six years, Parviz Afshar, the former spokesman of the Anti-Drug Headquarters, on 24 June 2017, announced that the country has 2.808 million addicts.

From that date, this number of the addicts were all the time the official number of the government. Before the presidential election in April 2017, a new number should have been announced, but in fear of the reaction of the people, the regime withheld the announcement. Then on 6 November 2019, the same number “2.808 million” was announced by the Deputy Chief of Intelligence and Operations of the NAJA Anti-Narcotics Police, Majid Karimi.

Mohsen Roshanpejouh, "Deputy of the Welfare Organization's Prevention and Treatment Center", regarding the number of addicts in the country previously said: “The announced number by the Anti-Drug Headquarters is the number of the continuous consumers of drugs, and recreational consumption is not considered.”

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Naser Aslani, the “Deputy for Counter-Supply and International Affairs of the Anti-Narcotics Headquarters”, while referring to the new number of the 4.5 million addicts on 17 October 2019 said: “There are 2.808 million continuous addicts and 1.600 million recreational drug users in the country.”

This number did not consider the number of addicts under the age of 15. While according to the regime’s state media the addiction age has reached the age of between 11 and 15.

FARS news agency quoted Rasul Khezri, Member of the Social Commission of Parliament, on 8 May 2019 and said: “The statistics about the addiction are absolutely not reliable. In fact, they are alone one-fifth of the real number.”

On 9 July 2018, the Hamdeli daily reported that “the number of addicts in the country should be considered as 10 million people.”

The head of the "Anti-Narcotics Headquarters" is the President himself. The Secretary-General of the Anti-Narcotics Headquarters has been elected by the Minister of Interior. Looking at the organization's organizational chart, it may be possible to speculate on the reason for the unrealistic statistics on the number of addicts in the country in the past and the transfer of statistics to the CUDRAS Institute at present.

On 20 March 2020, Rasul Khezri said Iran has the first place in the consumption of drugs in the world.

Mohamad Tarahomi, Director General of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Office of the Anti-Narcotics Headquarters, on 12 August 2019 said: “167 trillion Tomans is the turnover of the drugs, while the country’s budget has been announced at 408 trillion Tomans.”

In Iran, Half of the Country’s Population Does Not Have Access to Water Resources

In Iran, Half of the Country’s Population Does Not Have Access to Water Resources

By Pooya Stone

With the arrival of summer and rising temperatures, water consumption will undoubtedly increase dramatically. Now, despite the problem of water shortages that Iran is facing, the situation of the people of the country will be critical.

Summer has just begun. The country's towns and villages are experiencing higher temperatures than in previous days and weeks. This also means that the water situation is becoming more critical, although the water shortage crisis in the country is not just about the summer.

In developed countries or in countries where governments are concerned about people's livelihoods, the onset of summer is accompanied by an increase in water levels, but in these countries, proper management can save people from water shortages.

But the problem in Iran is different from other countries in the world. Not only water but all other of the living and basic priorities of the people are not the concern of the government, on which its management and planning are based, so that a country in a hot and dry climate can overcome the problem of water shortage, especially in the hot season.

The incompetence of the rulers in Iran in the field of water resources in the country, like other areas, is not related to today and the recent months and years.

For decades, experts have warned that with this trend and lack of proper management, the water crisis will turn into a super-crisis. Now, perhaps, the water crisis has crossed the border of the super-crisis.

Ghasem Taghizadeh, the deputy energy minister, said about the country's water crisis on 21 June: "We now have about 170 cities with water stress in the country, 50 of which are tense.”

"Forty-five percent of the country's population either does not have access to water resources or has little access to water, so we have to move drinking water sometimes from other basins," Taghizadeh said.

Perhaps Taghizadeh's statement alone is evidence of the country's supercritical water situation. Nearly half of the country's population does not have access to water.

But even more, critical situations can arise when we look at other of his statements, "Currently, 30 percent of the equipment in the water industry is worn out, which needs to be repaired or replaced, but repairing all the infrastructure requires a lot of capital," said Taghizadeh, referring to the figures he could give.

Given the economic situation of the Iranian government, following the nuclear, missile mischiefs and military interventions in the countries of the Middle East, which have brought the heaviest sanctions, it is unlikely that Tehran will be able to allocate funds for modernization and change 30% of the country's drinking water network.

This situation doubles the problems of the country's water shortage challenge and super-crisis, so much that the water shortage problem has led to the outcry of citizens protesting in different cities.

But in the face of the mass protests of the people in different cities, what was presented by Iranian leaders as a solution may be called slander.

Iran President Hassan Rouhani said on 4 June on this subject: "If the people set the water cooler on the low, we can have a good summer.”

With this approach, we can guess what the problems of the residents of the cities that are facing a serious shortage of water are.

Ghizaniyeh in Khuzestan, whose water problems have been at the forefront of the country's water crisis for the past few months, and since April this year, provincial and national officials have promised to solve the problem within a few weeks, but according to Taghizadeh, the people must deal with this problem till the end of September.

The problem of water shortage continues in other parts of Khuzestan. In some areas of Andimeshk county, only 2 hours of water supply is provided daily, and in some areas, although water is not supplied, water bills are issued in high prices.

At the end of June, residents of the villages of Jaghtai county of Sabzevar in the northeast of the country protested the lack of water. The water situation is not limited to the villages of Sabzevar county in Khorasan Razavi.

According to Ebrahim Alavi, CEO of Khorasan Razavi Province Water and Sewerage Company, currently, 300 villages in Khorasan Razavi Province are facing water shortages and are supplied with water tankers.

Also, 22 cities in Khorasan Razavi province are under water stress, of which six cities, namely Nishapur, Torbat-e-Jam, Mashhadrizah, Shandiz, Khaf, and Golbahar, are in a red situation and are in a serious shortage of water.

South Khorasan also reports that 1,700 villages in the province have been evacuated due to water shortages in recent years, and residents have moved to cities and other areas.

The water crisis is another critical dimension, the coronavirus outbreak. "Every 20 minutes you should wash your hands with soap and water." This expression is painful for a province like Sistan and Baluchestan, which was suggested by officials.

Asr Iran daily on 15 June wrote, "Coronavirus has hit the most deprived province in the country. Where it is not possible to go to war with it, with Tehran's health protocols. Something new must be thought. For example, it is funny to say that you should wash your hands regularly. There is no water so that they can wash their hands regularly."

However, it is to be expected that the water crisis, which is primarily an environmental crisis, will become a social and security crisis for the Iranian government, as the security forces have repeatedly warned against - which according to the current situation is not far off.

The Disappearance of Iran’s Middle Class, Its Assimilation Into the Lower Classes

The Disappearance of Iran’s Middle Class, Its Assimilation Into the Lower Classes

By Jubin Katiraie

In conventional sociology, the middle class is said to be the engine of progress and development.

One of the most effective measures of the Iranian government in dealing with this class is to weaken and discredit this section of the people, so much that, according to government experts, the government’s actions on this class is going so far that is leading to its complete disappearance from Iran’s society.

The social experts said that this part of the society is moving from its traditional place which is the middle stage of the society to the lower classes. This situation can be seen in the income distribution index between economic groups.

The state-run Hamdeli daily on 30 December 2019 wrote: “Revenue distribution in the deciles of the society has changed compared to recent decades. In other words, we used to have two weak deciles, six medium deciles, and two rich deciles in society. But now these conditions have changed and two poor deciles have expanded and become four deciles, and on the other hand, six middle deciles have been reduced to six deciles, and that is when their income is halved, and the two high-income deciles remain in place.”

This daily added: “In this regard, three to five percent of Iranian citizens are in the rich class, 15 to 17 percent in the upper-middle class, and the remaining 80 percent in the low-income class. Even if we consider this 15% to be the middle class, compared to the 90th and 20th the middle class has been shrunk.”

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, at the start of his presidency, to push back his rivals, said:

“We all have to move. We all must fasten our belts, with poetry and slogan you cannot make independence, with slogan there cannot be an honor, with outcry and demagogue the greatness of the country will not be right… In this country, some people, in the name of fighting against the (global) powers and the superpowers, have robbed the people's pockets.” (State Television News Channel, 13 May 2104)

But today there is no more trace of Rouhani’s slogans and promises like the above, and he and his government have lost the fight on power in the last parliament election against Iran’s supreme leader and his faction, both political and military branches which is the IRGC, which now in addition to having “the gun, the media and the money” (a phrase from Rouhani’s speeches) now, they have captured the Judiciary and the legislature, which is a clear defeat for Rouhani.

Because of the regime’s successive failures in the foreign policy arena, including the JCPOA, the expansion of the sanctions, the unprecedented global isolation, and the coronavirus epidemy, it is clear as the daylight, that there will be no more any middle class and it will slip to the lower classes, which has a devastating effect on the Iranian society, and inevitably this will add to the number of the child labors, garbage collectors, unemployed youth and the poverty-related suicides.

A government expert with a Gini coefficient index cited by international economic centers shows that when this coefficient reaches 40, the life of the middle class is over and said:

“Citizens' purchasing power has declined sharply, to 40 percent in the last decade, compared to the last two or three decades. When this purchasing power decreases, the poverty line and the Gini coefficient naturally increase, and when this coefficient reaches 40%, it naturally means that the middle class has disappeared and descended to the lower class.” (State-run ILNA news agency, 18 June 2020)

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Parliament’s Speaker, said in his election campaign that 4% of the population is prosperous and 96% live in poverty and inequality.

Gholamhossein Shafei, head of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, warned of the break-up of the middle class, saying: “According to the Research Center of the Islamic Parliament of Iran, the Gini coefficient has been on an upward trend since 2013, which means a significant increase in inequality and social gap. According to these statistics, despite the increase in purchasing power, the country's middle class is disintegrating.” (State-run Alef website, 7 June 2020)

But the Iranian government, which does not have any solution for this crisis, conducts shows like the distribution of food and advertising for it, increases the number of subsidies and the release of the justice share for sale by its owners and deferment of debts and bank installments. Such actions are in the hope of calming down the turbulent situation in Iran and to prevent that the country’s different classes from uniting against the authorities, which will be definitely the end of an era.

Ali Sarzaim, the deputy Minister of Economic Affairs and Planning of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, said on this plan:

“By maintaining its resources to help the poor, the government should calm them down, give political and social privileges to the middle class, and prevent high-class from rent-seeking. The government can satisfy the middle class by giving it social and political concessions. The government cannot stop its economic downturn. But it can give social benefits. Allow families to enter the stadium, return Zoroastrians to the council. These decisions not only have any cost for the government but also help maintain the middle class. In fact, it maintains the stability of Iranian politics. The government by protecting its resources must prevent those involved in relative poverty from falling into absolute poverty.” (State-run Iran daily, 26 August 2017)

However, now there are clear signs about the bad situation and that this government cannot and will not change anything while it is in deep trouble and involved with global terror support, its nuclear projects, so not having the intended sources to finance the people. As the state-run daily Marshregh wrote on 10 June 2020:

“The Majlis (Iran’s Parliament) Research Center shows that last year, the country's per capita income fell to its lowest level and reached 4,870,000 tomans.”

Iran coronavirus update: Over 50,000 deaths, “may reach 300,000”

Iran coronavirus update: Over 50,000 deaths, “may reach 300,000”

The novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has taken the lives of over 50,000 people throughout Iran, according to the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK

Reporting by PMOI/MEK

Iran, June 7, 2020—Over 50,000 people have died of the novel coronavirus in 325 cities checkered across all of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to reports tallied by the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) as of Sunday afternoon local time, June 7. The official death count declared by the regime stands at 8,291, around a sixth of the actual figure.

The death toll in various provinces include: 4,015 in Khuzestan, 1,705 in Sistan & Baluchistan, 1,685 in Alborz, 1,215 in Kermanshah, 985 in Kurdistan, 285 in Hormozgan. In Tehran the death toll has most definitely surpassed the 10,400 mark. This is in addition to reports obtained from other provinces.

Over 50,000 dead of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Iran

“We shouldn’t think that our death toll is now 5,000, 8,000 or 9,000. First of all, this is not a high number… and if we are not careful, these numbers will, God forbid, reach 10,000 and 15,000… The death toll may unfortunately reach 200,000, 300,000,” said Iraj Harirchi, the regime’s Deputy Health Minister in a program aired by state TV on June 6.

Iran’s COVID-19 death toll has reached such high levels that one state-run outlet wrote, “The novel coronavirus is taking more victims from Iranians in comparison to the [Iran-Iraq] war, but it is without any noise. This is where we are fooled… They have normalized all activities and to save face they are constantly repeating the term ‘by abiding health protocols,’ as if the novel coronavirus is afraid of these words!... We have entered the second COVID-19 wave and there are more deaths to come, more than a military war.” (Asr-e Iran website, June 6)

NCRI-FAC

✔@iran_policy

#Iran: The regime’s ongoing mistreatment of defenseless inmates will result in a major catastrophe across #Iranian prisoners, and the international community must intervene to prevent this from happening. #coronavirus #COVIDー19 https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/human-rights/new-covid-19-outbreak-in-irans-prisons-regimes-inaction-and-a-looming-catastrophe/#.XtjEFuAtvyA.twitter …

New COVID-19 Outbreak in Iran’s Prisons, Regime’s Inaction, and a Looming Catastrophe - NCRI

Reports from the Urmia central prison, northwest Iran, indicate that due to the regime’s negligence in isolating and curing those infected with

ncr-iran.org

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“The number of coronavirus cases in Tehran has reached 12 percent in the past 24 hours. These numbers stood at ten percent yesterday and we are facing a two percent increase,” said Alireza Zali, head of Tehran’s COVID-19 Task Force, according to a report wired on Saturday by the state-run Mehr news agency, affiliated to the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).

In Kermanshah, the governor described the ongoing second peak “harsher than the first peak,” according to a report wired on Sunday by the state-run ISNA news agency.

In Khuzestan, spokesperson of the Ahvaz Medical Sciences University reported 875 confirmed cases in the span of 24 hours. “Our total number of COVID-19 cases have reached 19,081,” he said, according to a report wired on June 6 by the Fars news agency, affiliated to the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). This is the highest number of new cases in a span of 24 hours.

“Health and medical supplies in the southern districts of Kerman province cannot cope with the number of people seeking treatment. From a month ago the number of people contracting the novel coronavirus in these areas has increased. Yesterday, 67 individuals tested positive as new COVID-19 cases in southern areas of Kerman province,” said the dean of Jiroft Medical Sciences University, according to a report wired on Saturday by the Tasnim news agency, affiliated to the IRGC Quds Force.

In Hormozgan, the governor said all the hospitals’ ICU beds are occupied and expressed grave concerns. “Unfortunately, this has taken place in the city of Bandar Abbas,” he said on Sunday, according to the state-run Sarat website.

“The spread of COVID-19 across [Kurdistan] province, especially the cities of Sanandaj and Qarveh, is extremely concerning. The city of Sanandaj has entered its second peak of this illness and the status quo is quite dire,” said the dean of Kurdistan Medical Sciences University on Saturday, according to the Mehr news agency.

“This catastrophe was preventable and the loss of so many lives could have been avoided,” said Iranian opposition President Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), on the horrific COVID-19 death toll of over 50,000 across Iran. “The death toll in Iran, even the regime’s official stats, go far beyond other Middle East countries. Most of these states have weaker infrastructure and economic/social foundations in comparison to Iran,” Mrs. Rajavi added.

“[Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei and [regime President Hassan] Rouhani are directly responsible for the increasing number of deaths and must be held accountable. Instead of providing the paychecks of Iran’s employees and hardworking workers from the pockets of economic cartels controlled by Khamenei and the IRGC, they have ordered the people back to their jobs, and to their certain death at the hands of the novel coronavirus,” Madam Rajavi added.

Maryam Rajavi

✔@Maryam_Rajavi

The clerical regime has adopted the strategy of mass human casualties to build a barrier against the danger of being overthrown by popular uprisings. But this barrier will one day collapse and come down on its head. #Iranhttps://www.maryam-rajavi.com/en/item/maryam-rajavi-velayat-e-faqih-regime-uprising-overthrow-iran …

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Iran coronavirus outbreak death toll interactive map

Where is Iran’s wealth spent?

Where is Iran’s wealth spent?

Where is Iran’s wealth spent?

Reporting by PMOI/MEK

Iran, May 30, 2020—With seven percent of the world's natural resources, Iran is one of the richest countries in the world. Accordingly, Iran only has one percent of the world's population, which means the Iranian people should have seven times the average welfare in the world and make more economic progress. But the reality of the Iranian people’s everyday lives in no way reflects these numbers.

The Iranian economy suffers from inflation, unemployment crisis, high prices, job insecurity, and hundreds and thousands of economic and social problems.

The question is, where is Iran's capital spent that causes so much suffering for the Iranian people?

On May 20, the state-run Etemad Online news website quoted Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, former MP from Kermanshah and member of the Majlis Security & Foreign Affairs Commission, as saying: “We may have given $20-30 billion to Syria.”

“When I went to Syria, some complained that I had caused expenses, but I will say this again: We may have given $20-30 billion to Syria. The money of this nation was spent there,” Falahatpisheh said.

This, of course, is not the regime’s entire expenses in Syria. For nine years, Tehran has had an active role in Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s war against the Syrian people. The Iranian regime has sent about 80,000 Afghan, Pakistani, and Iraqi mercenaries to this country and paid them approximately $9 billion in wages.

The regime’s expenditures on ammunition and weapons in the Syrian war are skyrocketing. Add to this the expenses of Tehran’s intervention in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain. The regime has spent tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Iran’s wealth on its warmongering policies in the Middle East, which has resulted in poverty and misery for the Iranian people.

Zarif once revealed that the regime had paid $35 billion to several people to help circumvent sanctions, and “it’s not clear where the money is now.”

According to the budget deduction report, it’s not clear what happened to the government’s U.S.-currency reserves in 2017. An amount of $4.8 billion was distributed among importers without importing goods and $2.7 billion was spent for soil, dog and cat food.

Summing up the $30 billion paid to Bashar al-Assad, $35 billion paid for sanctions circumvention, and the $4.8 billion missing from the government budget, a total of at least $70 billion of Iran’s wealth has been squandered on things that have no benefit for the people.

It is also important to know that less than 65 countries in the world have a budget close to $70 billion dollars. With this money, more than 4.8 billion stable jobs could be created. The average cost of creating a stable job is 250 million tomans (approx. $14,000).

With this money 1.5 million standards hospital beds could be procured. If we divide this money among the people of Iran, each person would get approx. $875. This money could help build 6 million school classes and pay the wages of the poor workers for five years. This money is equivalent to a 30-year cash subsidy for the Iranian people. With this money, Iranian wheat for 20 years and Iranian meat for 9 years could be supplied for free. So that each Iranian would be given 40 kilograms of meat. This money is equivalent to 1,170 tons of gold.

And this is just the expense of one of the destructive agendas of the regime. The mullahs have also spent hundreds of billions of dollars on nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

When Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former regime president and the chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, was alive, he revealed: “It is unclear what [regime president]Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has done with $700-800 billion of oil income.” Today it is clearer than ever how the wealth of the Iranian people has been looted. A fraction of embezzlement and theft that happens among regime officials would topple governments elsewhere in the world. But in the corrupt regime of the mullahs, government corruption has become the daily norm.

This, of course, will increase the public outrage and hate for the mullahs and will trigger social and political revolutions. For 40 years, the mullahs have been able to get away with incessant stealing, looting and plundering of the Iranian people’s wealth. But all things come to an end, especially when they’re rooted in evil.