Skip to main menu | Skip to content

You are in the "Commentaries, events, etc" section

  Alcohol in Iran. Some move to opium in preference says New York Times

Posted: April 6, 2006 13:48

Dear Colleagues,

The New York Times ran an interesting story about alcohol in Iran and the conflict between Persian wine traditions and modern enforcement of Islamic prohibitions on drinking. As with all blanket bans on popular pastimes, there are black markets, inequalities, arbitrary punishments, tainted alcohol, poisonings, deaths and, according to this item, a move towards other drug use such as opium. Is this "harm maximization" at work?

If certain patterns of alcohol consumption are beneficial (which has recently been questioned), do citizens have a 'right' to access as they should for medicine, education, etc? As a drug and alcohol physician, I always feel obliged to encourage reduced alcohol consumption, just as with tobacco or other harmful drugs. Excepts below. (Registration (free) is required with NYT to read the full article.)

The New York Times

3 April 2006

Tehran Journal "As Liquor Business Booms, Bootleggers Risk the Lash"

Photo caption: 'Pure alcohol, sold in many stores for under $3. The common recipe is one shot mixed with two shots of juice' By NAZILA FATHI Published: April 4, 2006
TEHRAN, April 3 - For more than 27 years, Iran's Islamic leaders have waged an uphill battle to cleanse the country of bootleg liquor.
Since the revolution in 1979, the government has banned alcoholic drinks and frequently flogged those who drank them. The small community of Christians and Jews was exempted, but could not sell alcohol to Muslims.
<snip> ... Parliament recently increased the punishment for selling or drinking it. Offenders still get 74 lashes, but now also receive a hefty fine and from three months to a year in prison, twice the maximum sentence than under the old law.
<snip> ... Every month, newspapers report that tens of thousands of bottles of illicit liquor are confiscated by the police .
Despite the crackdown, there is no sense of an alcohol shortage. .
The Iranian grape is so good for making spicy wine that Australian Shiraz, sometimes known as Syrah, is made from the same grape that grows in Iran's southern city of Shiraz, which gave the wine its name. .
... Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol ... But drinking and wine are integral parts of Persian culture. ... poems by Iran's popular 14th-century poet, Shamsudin Mohammad Hafiz, who was from Shiraz, revolve around wine. "A rose without the glow of a lover bears no joy," he wrote. "Without wine to drink the spring brings no joy."
... earliest evidence of wine making dates from 5400 B.C., in Haji Firuz Hills, near Western Azerbaijan Province, south of where the city of Orumieh is today.
... more than 40 factories, some of which have imported machinery from China and Europe, are competing in the market. A thin plastic bottle of 600 milliliters, known here as pocket size, has few indications of medical use, but is available in stores for under $3. The common recipe is to mix one shot of alcohol with two shots of juice, preferably pineapple. ... pure alcohol is still widely available.
... the decision to permit such widespread production of alcohol was made to limit the number of deaths and casualties caused by illegal drinks. Some 19 people were killed in 2004 after drinking bad bootleg liquor. "A lot of people had turned to drugs such as opium because they were cheaper and more accessible," said the official.

Comments by Andrew Byrne ..

 

Disclaimer

On this web site, Dr Byrne and colleagues have written summaries of many research articles, conferences and other events. These have been written largely to draw attention to peer-reviewed studies which may be relevant to clinical practice and public policy. While all care has been taken to be fair and accurate, readers are strongly advised to read the original publications before acting upon the information for clinical decisions.

Due to this brief form of communication, no responsibility can be taken for errors, mistakes or omissions.

Reputable sources of health information for the general public:

Top of page
© andrew byrne     +61 2 9319 5524
Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Mostly CSS validated but hacked for IE!