By Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times, July 7, 2012

[....] After years of being in public denial over the amount of illegal drinking in the country, officials in Iran are for the first time publicly addressing the issue of alcoholsim and the health problems drinking can cause, exacerbated by sometimes dangerous homemade brews.

"We sometimes get reports from hospitals and doctors on the consumption of alcohol from neighborhoods in the south of Tehran; low-income and traditional walks of people live there, which is worrying," Deputy Health Minister Baqer Larijani said in May [....]

And last month [...] Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi announced, "We have prepared a road map to treat alcoholism and reduce the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the society."

But even as officials acknowledge the problem, the government continues to treat drinking as a sin and a crime [....]