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 Basra's prison system is clogged up and creaking. On a recent day in
one police station, Reuters reporters saw about 150 men, their heads
shaved, squatting in two small, cramped holding cells.
Arrests of drug users and dealers have shot up in the past year,
further stretching prison services and police in a sign that the
problems with municipal resources that prompted protests in Basra
last summer have not gone away.
"Drugs spread because the youth are lost, they have no money, they
are sick of life. It's escapism," Major Shaker Aziz, a senior member
of Basra police narcotics unit, told Reuters.
"Prison authorities tell us: 'Ninety percent of inmates are
convicted on drug charges, stop sending them.' So we keep them
here," Aziz said of the holding cells.
The situation in prisons, worsened by a lack of treatment centers
for recovering addicts, highlights the contrast between the wealth
Basra province produces - its oil contributes over 90 percent of
state revenues - and its poor living conditions.
Once known as the Venice of the East, Basra city, which has a
population of 4 million, lacks clean water and does not have enough
electricity to power air conditioners in the scorching summer heat.
Unemployment is widespread, especially among youth.
Thousands protested against the conditions, unemployment and
corruption last summer, when searing heat made matters worse and
hundreds were treated in hospital after drinking unclean water.
Protesters set ablaze government buildings and political groups'
headquarters, and clashed with police.
Officials fear a repeat of the violence this year, and while the
drug problem is a concern in several areas of Iraq, Basra suffers
from it the most.
STEADY RISE
Basra is struggling even though Iraq declared victory in the
four-year war against Islamic State in 2017, and the city never fell
to the militant Sunni Islamist group.
The number of drug arrests has risen year-on-year since 2015, Aziz
said. By March, police had picked up 15 kilograms (33 lb) of illegal
drugs this year, half of 2018's entire haul. Some 50 to 60 people
are arrested each week on drugs-related offences, compared to more
than 1,000 all last year, he said.
Methamphetamine, known popularly as crystal meth, is the most
widespread drug, said a police spokesman, Colonel Bassem Ghanem.
Opium, cannabis and pill abuse are also common.
Basra's police department says 97 percent of drug users arrested in
2018 were unemployed, and more than two thirds were 25 or younger.
All the drugs come from abroad, said Colonel Ismail al-Maliki, who
heads the Basra police narcotics unit.
Basra Police Chief Rashid Fleih said in November that 80 percent of
drugs entering the city come from Iran. Tehran denied this but
officials still point the finger indirectly at Iran, using
euphemisms such as "neighboring countries".
Preventing drug trafficking is a serious challenge for Iran which
borders Afghanistan, the world's largest opium producer, and
Pakistan, a major transit country for drugs.
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Iraq once had the death penalty for users and dealers but passed new
legislation in 2017 under which judges can order rehabilitation for
users or sentence them to jail for up to three years. In the absence
of rehab centers, they are jailed. Under the new law, the health
ministry was given two years to provide rehab centers.
Local health officials pledged to reopen and upgrade a 44-bed
rehabilitation center this month but the police say 44 beds is not
enough.
"All of Basra's oil and we can't afford rehab?" said Aziz.
Asked about the situation, the state-owned Basra Oil Company said it
has pledged $5 million for a rehab center.
'SMOKING FOR FREE'
Inside a training complex on the edge of Basra province, police have
re-purposed a building as a makeshift rehab center for users nearing
release.
About 40 men live in comparatively comfortable conditions, sleeping
six per room with access to television, a gym and books. Clerics,
officers and teachers lecture on the sinfulness and dangers of drug
use.
Experts say recovering users need treatment and rehabilitation when
they first stop using, not towards the end of sentences. Prisoners
say they suffer the worst withdrawal symptoms during the first 20
days, unable to eat or sleep.
"This is just a model, to get the health ministry to build real
centers," said Ghanem, the spokesman.
Prisoners interviewed by Reuters were chosen by police, who sat in
on interviews. Some were handcuffed.
One user-turned-dealer said he was recruited a year after he started
buying, wooed by the idea of free crystal meth.
"I paid 50,000 dinars ($40) per gram as a user. I only paid 20,000
($16) as a dealer. I would sell some and smoke some. I was smoking
for free," he said.
He described a network of dealers that went up to a "big boss" whom
he would not identify to police out of fear for his life. He faces a
minimum of five years in jail.
Some said they were falsely arrested. Asked if the police offered
suspects lighter sentences if the provided them with information,
one police officer said they rarely needed to.
"They always cooperate," he said, asking not to be named as he was
not authorized to discuss the matter.
(Additional reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Timothy
Heritage)
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