The implementation of the “Harandi Neighborhood Uplifting Plan” by the Tehran Municipality, has helped clean up the neighborhood of injecting junkies to some extent, but as long as the root causes of the problem exist, their comeback cannot be prevented.
So far, more than 4,000 homeless addicts, including 1400 females, have been rounded up in the neighborhood and sent to rehab shelters across province, according to Mehdi Chamran, chairman of Tehran City Council.
“At rehab centers, addicts undergo detoxification for between 21 days to three months, following which social workers decide whether they are ready to return to the society or not,” thePersian-language newspaper ‘Etemad’ quoted him as saying.
Most of the addicts are not from Tehran. “More than 60% have migrated from the towns and smaller counties to the capital to find jobs,” he said.
Therefore, after being rounded up, nearly half of them are sent back to their own cities, as rehab shelters in Tehran have more than they can handle.
Stating that the measures at rehab centers “are mere palliatives and not a cure for the social malady of addiction,” he said the first step that should be taken is creation of jobs to keep the youth busy and out of harm’s way.
As Harandi is near the major Tehran South Bus Terminal, and the people don’t have a place to stay, they go to the neighborhood’s big green space, the Harandi Park,” he said.
Addressing problems in the northern parts of the city is the TCC’s next priority. There the problem has “taken a different shape, as most of the homeless addicts are engaged in illegal drug sales in unauthorized coffee houses.”
While the number of homeless addicts is higher in the south of the capital, the number of addicts engaged in unlawful activities like selling drugs is higher in the northern parts, so this social problem is as serious as in the southern areas.
