Jordan

Jordan is a Middle Eastern country bordering Iraq and Saudi Arabia to the east, Syria to the north, and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Jordan is notable for being one of the West's closest allies in the Arab world, and the only Arab country apart from Egypt with diplomatic relations with Israel. There is no significant drug production in Jordan, which lacks the agricultural resources and industrial infrastructure. The largest area of narcotics concern is heroin trafficking, which has risen steadily since 1995, after a slight decline in the early 1990s due to tighter border controls. Heroin seizures have occurred primarily at the Syrian border with incoming shipments and at Aqaba with outgoing shipments en route to Egypt. The through traffic has contributed to Jordanian heroin usage because of the tendency of drug cartels to pay their intermediates and corrupt officials with product to be resold, rather than cash. The repatriation of 300,000 Jordanian nationals after the Gulf War also contributed to social stresses, as has the widespread unrest in the Middle East in the 21st century.

Prescription sedatives and stimulants are believed to be the most commonly abused drug, followed by opium and heroin. Cocaine, marijuana, and ecstasy [Page 436]are comparatively less common. Drug abuse is primarily a problem of men, typically 25 and under, and no state-run drug treatment centers admit women. Private clinics will treat women, and in some cases the state will subsidize their care.

Jurisdiction over drug crime falls to the Anti-Narcotics Department, which coordinates the Jordanian fight against drug trafficking; the Desert and Border Police, who patrol the sparsely settled borders and the wide Arabian Desert; the customs department; and the Jordanian military. Because of Jordan's friendly relationship with the West and its central location along some of the drug trafficking routes in the region, it is the strategic hub of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's Middle East program.