A Critique of the Legislative Policy Governing Addiction in Iran

One of the issues that has plagued societies today is addiction. This calamity exists in most countries, but the severity and spread of drug addiction in Iran dates back to the 1960s. Since some specific policies are adopted in all countries to prevent this, a specific legislative policy was adopted in Iran to combat trafficking, but it did not have any positive effect on reducing addiction. The ineffectiveness of this policy as well as the prevalence of addiction and its harms in 2010 pushed the government to adopt a legislative policy to prevent addiction. This policy has not enjoyed a harmony over time. In 2010, the legislature adopted an ‘irfaqi[1] criminal policy on addiction. According to the psychologists, addiction is not a crime but a disease. Given this point, as well as the resistance of the judiciary to the punishment of addicts, while the public view of addicts has changed, there still exist some criticisms of legislative policy. Iran's legislative policy regarding addiction has been very strict in a period of time, while in some other periods it has treated the issue with indifference and insignificance, and now in the present time what has been progressed is treatment strategy.