U.S., Iran Share a Common Enemy: Heroin

News about soaring rates of heroin abuse and death by overdose is hard to miss in the United States. Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont devoted his entire State of the State address this year to what he called Vermont’s “full-blown heroin crisis.” Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts has cited a “meteoric rise in addiction to heroin.” Attorney General Mike DeWine of Ohio, where 900 people died of overdoses last year, said heroin “is killing Ohioans at record levels.” From Philadelphia to Miami, from northern Kentucky to southern Louisiana, this scourge is taking a terrible toll. Iran knows what this is like. It may have the worst opiate problem of any country in the world. Four million of its 70 million people are addicts. Overdose is the second leading cause of death, after traffic accidents. Half the prison population is made up of drug offenders. In many towns, and in rough Tehran neighborhoods like Davarze Ghar — “entrance to the cave” — addicts gather to use and, too often, die.