Iranian bus and truck drivers will soon face being stopped at the side of the road and forced to pee into a bottle as part of a police campaign to weed out drug users.
Top police official Mohsen Ansari told the student news agency Isna on Wednesday that an estimated 10% of these drivers use narcotics, meaning police have been forced to add thin-layer chromatography urine-testing kits to their arsenal.
“Drivers who test positive will have their licences invalidated and will have to appear in court,” he said.
Iran’s road network is one of the most dangerous in the world, with the past five years seeing about 100 000 road-accident deaths. Most accidents are blamed on reckless high-speed driving tendencies, dilapidated vehicles and poor roads.
A ban on alcohol means that drink driving is not a significant problem, but the country does count an estimated two million users of opium, heroin, morphine or cannabis. — AFP