Identifying the facilitators of Iran’s alcoholic beverage black market and presenting solutions for harm reduction: a qualitative document analysis

Despite Iran’s prohibition politics regarding alcoholic beverages consumption, marketing, and trading, there is a flourishing black market. Often, alcohol producers on this black market do not adhere alcohol production standards, resulting in a lot of deaths and significant consequences each year. Accordingly, this study was carried out to identify facilitators for the growth of the black market for alcoholic beverages in Iran and provide solutions for harm reduction.

This study was a qualitative document publicly available analysis, in which online newspapers and Persian news websites about alcoholic beverages black market in Iran were reviewed. Documents were analyzed using thematic analysis.

After the completion of the analysis, 21 final codes, seven subthemes, and four themes were developed. Four themes are (1) political factors, including governance, regulatory rules and regulations, and awareness sub-themes (2) sociocultural factors, including culture change sub-theme (3) economic factors, including attractive market sub-theme, and (4) business factors, including manufacturing and marketing sub-themes.

As a result of alcohol prohibition politics in Iran and a socioeconomically supportive environment, black market has developed. Several policies can be implemented to reduce alcohol black market harm. It is possible to reduce the demand for homemade alcohol by educating the public about its risks. The government should enforce stricter policies on trading and advertising alcohol to reduce the availability of homemade alcohol and shrink alcohol black market. To implement these solutions, clerics should be convinced that the alcohol black market poses a serious public health threat.