A First Glimpse at Narcotics Offenders in an Islamic Republic

• Author: William Alex Pridemore,Akbar Aliverdinia
• Published date: 01 March 2007
• Date: 01 March 2007
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1057567706298913
• Subject Matter: Articles

A First Glimpse at Narcotics

Offenders in an Islamic Republic

A Test of an Integrated Model of Drug

Involvement Among a Sample of Men

Incarcerated for Drug Offenses in Iran

Akbar Aliverdinia

Mazandaran University, Babolsar, Iran

William Alex Pridemore

Indiana University, Bloomington

This study tests the efficacy of social control, differential association, social learning, and self-

esteem theories as explanations for the variation in individual levels of illegal drug involve-

ment among a sample of adult incarcerated drug offenders in Iran. The results of path analysis

indicate that measures of differential association (with drug-involved peers) and self-esteem

had significant direct effects on self-reported narcotics crimes, whereas attachment, belief, and

family drug involvement were indirectly associated with variation in level of drug involve-

ment. As a result of its sharply different cultural and religious contexts, Iran presents a unique

case for the evaluation of theoretical models developed to explain offending in Western

nations. Yet because of its political structure and ideological and religious sensitivity to drug

use, there have been few published analyses of drug use and drug offenders in Iran, making

this study one of the first of its kind in either Western or Persian-language journals.

Keywords: Iran; drug offenders; drug use; differential association; self-esteem

The Golden Crescent is one of the world’s largest regions for the cultivation and pro-

duction of narcotics. Because of its geographical position between the drug producers

on its eastern borders (especially Afghanistan) and drug consumers in the West (mostly in

Europe), the Islamic Republic of Iran is the shortest and cheapest transit route for illegal

substances—mainly opium, hashish, heroin, and morphine—destined for European mar-

kets. Ethnic similarities and the close relationships among the inhabitants on both sides of

the Iran-Afghanistan border provide a background for and reinforce this situation.

Unfortunately, Iran is suffering from the spillover effects of the drug trade and its transit

routes. The problems of narcotics crimes and those who commit them are among the most

complex challenges currently facing Iranian society. Increases in these types of offenses have

led to a growing awareness that Iran has a new major social problem. About 80,000 persons

are currently imprisoned for narcotics offenses, which accounts for more than half of Iran’s

prison population, and the Iranian government has executed more than 10,000 narcotics

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International Criminal

Justice Review

Volume 17 Number 1

March 2007 27-44

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10.1177/1057567706298913

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traffickers in the past decade. The government of Iran currently is spending about $400 million

annually to combat drug transit through and trafficking in the country. In addition, another

$400 million is spent annually on demand reduction programs, including treatment, rehabili-

tation, and social reintegration of addicts. These measures have been unilaterally carried out by

Iran without contributions from international organizations or donor countries.

Data on domestic consumption of illicit drugs indicate that Iran is not simply a transit

point for drugs but is also turning into a major consumer. For example, the United

Nations Drug Control Programme (1998, 2000) estimates that 1.5% to 2.0% (about 1.3

million people) of the Iranian population have a serious drug problem. Rough estimates

based on the number of users of opium derivatives and the average daily consumption of

opium suggest that the opium market consumes about 800 tons per year in the country.

Furthermore, the rising trend of intravenous drug use is a matter of serious concern

among Iranian health authorities because recent data indicate that 67% of HIV/AIDS

transmissions have been caused by injecting. This phenomenon is of particular concern

in the penitentiary system, where needle sharing seems to be practiced more often (Drug

Control Headquarters, 2004).

Prior Studies of the Causes and Effects of Drug Use in Iran

The first author of the current article consulted numerous potential Persian-language

sources of prior studies of the causes and effects of drug use in Iran, including various

library catalogs, government sources, and published and unpublished research mono-

graphs, theses, and papers. The result of this review reveals that ours is not only one of the

first such studies to appear in the Western literature but that there have also been very few

studies on the subject published in Iran. The research that does exist usually analyzes the

subject from legal and psychological perspectives, and thus there have been only a handful

of sociologically based studies of drugs in the country, which we briefly review here before

moving on to the current analysis.

Ghorban Hosseini (1996) examined drug addiction and trafficking in Iran from a supply

and demand perspective, looking closely at the dimensions of the public campaign against

drugs in the country, including the prevention of drug use and the treatment of addicts. He

concluded that drug addiction and the problems associated with it persist in Iran as a result

of (a) insufficient programming and discontinuity in treatment and (b) the lack of effective

training of and nonconformity to treatment regimes by many lower-level officers.

Three studies have examined the social and psychological antecedents of addiction in

Iran. First, relying on subcultural theory, Jahangiri (1997) examined the effects of several

socioeconomic characteristics on addiction. Based on his study of drug addicts at Kerman

Rehabilitation Center, the author found that the majority of addicts were from low-income

families and themselves were in the lower socioeconomic strata. The study also showed

significant effects of employment, involvement of parents in criminal activities, father’s

education, and family’s socioeconomic status (SES) on respondent’s addiction. The author

concluded that the family can act as either a strong protective or risk factor for addiction,

depending on the context.

A survey carried out by Seifollahi (1994) studied socioeconomic characteristics of

addicted women who had been arrested in Tehran. The author found that opium and heroin

28 International Criminal Justice Review