TEHRAN -- Head of Police Narcotics Headquarters Mahdi Abouei said here on Monday, "There are 1.2 million addicts and 800,000 who are social users of narcotics." However, he termed the police anti-drug addiction program as successful, adding, "The police have taken effective steps in the past couple of years in reign in smuggling and distribution of drugs."

The police efforts have been led to 50 percent reduction in the prevalence of drug in the country in the past two years compared with the two preceding years, Abouei said.

He also shifted the responsibility for the lack of prevention and treatment of addicts to other organs, saying it is not the police's job to tackle such issues, IRNA reported.

In the past three months, he said, the police and judiciary have made all out efforts to mop up addicts from the streets of urban areas such that over 6,000, addicts have been rounded up in Tehran alone in the period.

They have been handed to rehabilitation centers and prisons organization, Abouei added.

Speaking in a meeting attended by the director of National Anti-Drug Center, Abouei said the police are determined to raise the qualitative and quantitative activities to curb the drug menace.

"Though the heroin consumption has decreased in Iran, the police would continue to focus on heroin," Abouei said, adding that this year no change is seen in hashish consumption as compared to last year.

He called on the agencies, affiliated to the headquarters, to increase their dealings with the inter-agency cooperation in drug supply and demand reduction plans.

Abouei said currently, despite combating drug distribution, the prevention and treatment of drug use conducted by relevant agencies have not yielded the ideal results.

He listed setting up of a special center to intensify the police-judicial cooperation in countering smuggling and distribution of illicit drugs.

Abouei said the police plans are expected to create an unsafe environment for distributors and dealers of narcotics, mopping up of drug-infested areas and prevention of public drug dealing.

The Islamic Republic has launched a relentless anti-drug campaign since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, in which more than 3,100 policemen have lost their lives. Iran's anti-drug campaign costs the country 800 million dollars per year, according to officials.

The country accounts for 80 percent of the opium and 90 percent of the morphine intercepted in the world, according to the International Narcotics Control Board.

An official said earlier that the Iranian police seized 112 tons of illicit drugs and arrested 306,000 people on drug-related charges during the last Iranian year, which ended on March 20.