Iran's heroin fight
Updated on 10 March 2006
Iran has the largest heroin problem in the world. But can the west learn from their treatment methods?
>>Watch the report
Liberal drugs policies are usually associated with liberal countries. So it may be surprising that a strict Muslim state such as Iran not only has the world's worst problem of heroin addiction, but is now tackling it with enlightened techniques.
There are three and a half million heroin addicts in Iran, and their sharing of needles is fuelling a soaring rate of AIDS infection.
But as Jonathan Miller now reports as part of Channel 4 News' Iran Week, western democracies may have something to learn from the country's programme of methadone treatment.
