TEHRAN - More than 30% of Iranian addicts have a university education, a recent study by the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation showed. According to the study, 7.3 percent of addicts are government employees and 40 percent are self-employed.

Nine percent of the country's addicts blamed addiction as the underlying cause behind their unemployment. And 12 percent were unemployed before being addicted, the study reported.

It added that an estimated 16% of addicts earn their income from drug dealing and 35 percent are unemployed.

Referring to the government employees' addiction rate, the director of Iran's Scientific Association of Social Workers said that this is an estimated number, "not counting the number of closet addicts."

There is no relation between the education rate and the addiction rate, Mostafa Eqlima averred.

... Payvand News - 03/11/09 ... --