روند 30 ساله وضعيت سوءمصرف مواد در ايران

Trend of drug abuse situation in Iran: a three-decade survey

As comprehensive and periodical studies on substance abuse epidemiology are lacking in Iran, it is unlikely to study the alterations in incidence, prevalence, and patterns of substance use by comparing the results of such kind of .studies. The aim of current study was assessment of the trend of drug abuse incidence in the country in three recent decades. This cross-sectional study was conducted in central cities of ten different provinces having variant .social and cultural circumstances. A total number of 1500 substance-dependent individuals were selected to study their year of initiation of drug use, the year of substitution of using methods by injection drugs, drug taking patterns, and some other relevant factors, by means of a questionnaire. As drug users have always been a hidden population, the samples were approached by three different methods: volunteer drug users seeking treatment at outpatient clinics, drug users in prisons, and street drug users, the latter through snowballing method. Although the analysis of annual incidence of using drugs showed fluctuations in consecutive years in the past three decades, it kept a rising trend during that period. The highest rise in incidence belonged to the period of 1973-1978 with 166 percent. This trend, afterwardsʹ, showed a steady reduction till 1987 to be.fnllowed by a 59 percent rise during the period of 1988-1992. The average annual increasing rate for the incidence of drug abuse during the period of 1978-1998 has been 8 percent. In other words, the total population of drug users has doubled each 12 years. Taking into account the average annual growth rate of the Iranian population, which has been 2.63% at the same period, it become apparent that the incidence of drug abuse has had a more than threefold upsurge compared to population growth. The average rise in incidence of injecting drugs wasʹ calculated to he as high as 330 percent during the past decade and apparently 33 percent annually.