Authorities had also seized 210kg of cannabis resin and 924kg of cannabis herb. There were 150 confirmed deaths from drug overdose in 1995. Greek authorities maintain that anti-corruption laws generally deter public officials from facilitating illicit production or distribution of drugs, or the laundering of drug money. However, police salaries are low and, while few specific cases may be cited, some corruption occurs. In August, a senior customs official and a retired policeman were caught trying to sell one kg of heroin to an undercover policeman.
Cannabis is cultivated in small amounts for local use.
In addition, cannabis seed is exported to Albania. Opium poppies, used in Greek folk medicine for over two thousand years, are grown in the mountainous areas of northern Greece. Greece remains a principal transshipment route for heroin and hashish arriving from the Near East and South Asia and bound for Western Europe and, to a lesser degree, the United States. Drug couriers continue to transit Athens Airport and, increasingly, Greece's Aegean Islands en route to drug markets in Europe and, to a lesser extent, the United States. The trucks typically enter Greece the land crossings between Greece and Turkey, then cross by ferry to Italy.