BAGHDAD, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi government on Sunday said that the provinces of Basra, Maysan and Anbar were identified as the entry corridors for drugs smuggled into the country.
"The Iraqi Interior Ministry has identified these three provinces after a long investigation in collaboration with other government institutions," Jamal al-Asadi, inspector general of the Interior Ministry, told al-Mirbad local radio station.
Al-Asadi explained that the ministry has noted an increasing rate of drug abuse in Basra and other provinces, "thus we put forth measures to solve the problem, but the measures still require approval by the Council of Ministries."
"The spread of drug abuse in Iraq is due to the weak capacity of the anti-narcotics directorate which lacks sufficiently trained staff as well as the weak control on the border crossings," al-Asadi added.
Earlier in the year, the Iraqi Human Rights Commission said that the drug abuse in Iraq has become a phenomenon threatening family and society, and called upon the Ministry of Health to establish more hospitals to deal with the drug addicts.
