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Three years after the US invasion of Iraq, drug trafficking and addiction are on the rise, officials at the country's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs told the United Nations' humanitarian news agency, IRIN, Monday. The remarks were prompted by large drugs seizures in recent weeks.

Iraqi children sniffing glue -- photo from IRIN, the UN's humanitarian news agency

The primary illicit drugs being used are heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, with grams of heroin or cocaine going for $20 to $30 dollars, ministry officials said. (Previous reports have noted widespread abuse of prescription drugs as well.) They said the heroin is coming from Afghanistan and Iran and the cocaine is somehow arriving from South America.

"We estimate that more than 5,000 Iraqis are consuming drugs in the south today, especially heroin, compared with 2004, when there were only around 1,500," said Dr Kamel Ali, a senior official in the health ministry's anti-narcotics program. "We fear the number could be as high as 10,000 countrywide."

Officials singled out the Shiite south as a problem area. It is unclear what effective authority the Baghdad government or its anti-drug ministries have in the restive Sunni parts of the country. Police have carried out more than 50 raids since September in Kerbala, 70 miles south of Baghdad, alone, they said.

"Kerbala and Najaf are the biggest consumers of drugs," said Sinan Youssef, a senior official in the social affairs ministry's strategy department. "We believe the drugs [heroin/marijuana] are brought into the country by visitors from Iran and Afghanistan every month."

According to Major Salah Hassan of Kerbala's crime unit, more than 100 kilos of heroin, 40 kilos of cocaine and 160 kilos of marijuana have been found by local police in Kerbala and in Najaf. "We're very concerned that the situation is getting worse, and the seizures on the borders are increasing," said Major Salah Hassan of the Kerbala police, citing the seizure of more than 220 pounds of heroin and 100 pounds of cocaine in recent raids. "We arrested more than 20 Iraqis carrying drugs since last year and we're proceeding with careful investigations to discover the source," Hassan added. "Urgent action should be taken by the Ministry of Interior to prevent more drugs from entering Iraq."

For Youssef, the reasons for the increase in drug use and trafficking are clear: insecurity, terrorism, and lack of employment. "The number of addicts is increasing, particularly among young people from conservative families, where there are more religious restrictions," he said. "This makes them look for another way to forget about the pressure that the society puts on them."

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