Hospitals wage a different war: Against addiction

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-06-23-iraq-addiction_x.htm?csp=N009

BAGHDAD — Iraqi and American medical experts say they have noticed a rise in drug abuse and trafficking in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Among the reasons:

• Loose border controls between Iraq and Iran, where drugs flow in from Afghanistan, the source of poppies used to make opium and heroin, say Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University substance-abuse specialist who is helping Iraq rebuild its mental health system, and Paul Hughes, an Iraq specialist with the U.S. Institute for Peace.

• An unsettled atmosphere that nurtures organized crime, which profits from illegal drug sales, says Salih al-Hasnawi, a psychiatrist and director of the health department in Karbala, 50 miles southwest of Baghdad.

• Thousands of former criminals, released by former leader Saddam Hussein, involved in the drug trade, says Rawnaq Aqrawi, a pharmacist in Baghdad.

[sasquatch]

1. I bet they're selling it to the troops as well

Probably tricking them into thinking it's something else.

[lumpy]

2. Thousands of former criminals

released by Saddam? Didn't the US military release prisoners after the invasion?

[leesa]

3. So sad. Iraq was drug free and terrorist free until we came along.

Gotta market those drugs we're growing in Afghanistan somewhere though.

[teryang]

4. The average American county jail has more addicts than this

Just an observation. I'm sure that the problem in Iraq is just the tip of the iceberg as reported.