The Turkish Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (TUBİM), which operates under the National Police Department’s Anti-smuggling and Organized Crime Department, has released its 2009 National Report on Counteracting Addictive Substances and Substance Addiction, based on 2008 data.According to the report, 88.7 percent of drug-related deaths involved the use of opium derivatives alone or with other substances. İstanbul saw the largest number of the directly drug-related deaths with 93 deaths. Gaziantep and Van (10 each), Adana and Elazığ (eight each) and Antalya (six) followed İstanbul in the number of drug-related deaths. The average age of males whose death was directly related to drugs was 33.6, while for women it was 32.1.
Approximately 4,125 people were incarcerated due to illegal drug use in 2005. This figure grew to 15,447 in 2008, an increase of approximately 275 percent. Police officers carried out 1,100 operations against organizations trafficking in heroin in 2007, increasing by 37 percent in 2008, to 1,507.
