Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Qassem Afshar underlined that there have been no reports of commercial cultivation of cannabis, also known as marijuana, inside the country.
He further pointed to regular air patrols by the police and said the Law Enforcement’s helicopters conduct flights over farm lands to prevent the cultivation of illicit drugs.
Afshar also said over the past years, there has been a surge in the production of marijuana in neighboring Afghanistan.
Iran, which has a 900-kilometer common border with Afghanistan, has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.
Despite high economic and human costs, the Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug-trafficking over the past three decades.
The country has spent more than $700 million on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.
The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past four decades.