a qualitative assessment of crack supply in tehran

introduction: supplies of illegal drugs play determinant roles in developing new cases, relapse after treatment and some health criteria. recently, iran has encountered an illicit new coming drug which belongs to opioids. this article presents the crack supply in retail market in tehran.   method: this qualitative study was conducted in 2009 in tehran. in-depth interviews with drug dealers, drug users and key informants were performed by using open questionnaires as well as some checklists.   findings: accessibility to crack was expressed as “very easily” lack of money and police presence are the most problems of obtaining crack. most of informants believed that the price, purity, and color had changed during time and the quality had decreased. the major impurity added to crack was pills. crack dealing is more beneficial in comparison with other drugs and it was due to poverty and need of the users resulting from addiction. in general, there was a wide variety of controversial opinions regarding the method of production as well as quality of crack in respondents. discussion: regarding the recent considerable increase in crack availability in iran, rapid changes in crack quality and production has happened. considering the top priority for the battle against this hard drug supply in comparison with softer drugs like opium, providing proper information and teaching it to clinicians and mainstream is highly recommended