TEHRAN – Iran is not only a leading country in addiction prevention but also in the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts, Robin Nandy, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative in Iran has said.

He made the remarks on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the first health and empowerment center for girls in Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi.

He also praised Iran's determination in the fight against addiction in children and teenagers, especially in girls, IRNA reported.

Noting that cognitive and behavioral approaches can help empower and strengthen the resilience and skills of vulnerable teenagers and young people, he said that if these services are provided well, the quality and effectiveness of drug prevention, treatment, and care approaches increase.

In the past years, the United Nations Children's Fund has provided support and various measures with the aim of developing and implementing family and school-based programs for the prevention of addiction.

$1.4m allocated to addiction treatment

A total of 410 billion rials (nearly $1.4 million) is proposed for the treatment of addiction and reduction of its social harm from the Health Insurance Organization’s share of the budget bill for the current calendar year which started on March 21.
In June, Alexander Fedulov, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Representative in Iran Country, attached special importance to the regional and global role of Iran in the fight against narcotics and announced readiness to provide practical assistance to the country in this regard.
Iran holds the record for narcotics confiscation in the world, Eskandar Momeni, the director of anti-narcotics police headquarters said in December 2021.

However, great achievements in the field of countermeasures have been gained, and the United Nations has officially announced that 90 percent of opium, 70 percent of morphine, and 20 percent of world heroin have been discovered by Iran.
After the Islamic Revolution (in 1979), more than 3,800 were martyred and 12,000 were wounded or disabled in the fight against drug trafficking.

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