Iran

[Page 417]Iran is a Middle Eastern nation, bordering the Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf, and the Caspian Sea. Iran also borders Iraq to the west, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan to the east, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey to the north. Known as Persia until 1935, Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979 after the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown. Despite considerable interdiction efforts and anti-trafficking measures along the Afghanistan border, Iran is one of the primary transshipment routes for southwest Asian heroin to Europe. It has among the highest rates of opiate addiction in the world, and the use of synthetic drugs has recently increased.

The drug identified most closely with Iran is opium, the large-scale production and export of which began in the ...