The Iraqi Drug Control Authority released on Saturday statistics on the number of people arrested on charges of drug use and trafficking in 6 months.
Director of the Drug Enforcement Administration Colonel Bilal Sobhi said in a statement to the Iraqi news agency INA that “the arrest statistics in the past six months amounted to 8,200 people accused of human trafficking and violence, including 200 women, in addition to more than 200 adolescent males and females.”
He added that “this statistic is a dangerous indicator of the abuse of women and adolescents”, stressing that “the largest percentage of drug addicts are men.” The agency announced “proposals to change the drug law” and its intention was to “tighten penalties”. He pointed out that “the anti-drug law (…) includes sanctions against traffickers, importers and distributors of narcotic substances.” He explained that “the importer is sentenced to death (…) and life imprisonment for anyone engaged in agriculture, industry or import and export”, and that “trafficking in narcotic substances (…) is punishable by life or temporary imprisonment .”
Sobhi pointed out that “the proposals included tougher penalties for drug users (…), but they rejected the fact that the law and the Ministry of Health treat the drug user as a patient and not a criminal.” An Iraqi official said that “there is a proposal to indicate the number by which a person is a drug dealer or user.”
Sobhi pointed out that “the most common types of drugs in Iraq include crystal materials and hashish, which are distributed in the center and south, in addition to Captagon pills, which are common in western and northern Iraq and are the most common and desired among young people.”
In one week, Iraqi authorities thwarted an attempt to smuggle a large amount of Captagon narcotic pills coming from the Syrian border as the country grapples with a growing drug problem.
In April last year, an official Iraqi Interior Ministry security source, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak, said one of the main reasons for the importation of drugs from Syria is “unwillingness to maintain order at the borders.” In September 2019, Iraq reopened the Al-Qaim checkpoint with Syria after eight years of its closure due to unrest in the region.
He said the source, in connection with the Al-Hurra website, explained what he called “a security flaw in border security,” military actions seen by Iraq and Syria that make it easier for drug smugglers to get in. “Iraq is a country that is indirectly occupied by other countries and has become an easy and simple land for drug dealers and big smugglers, whether on the border with Syria or the border with Iran,” he added.
