“There’s isn’t any medication here or any treatment,” said Hamid Jabar Abdul Karim, 32, who used to work as a canine trainer for the Iraqi security forces. Now that he has a drug offense on his record, he said, he was unlikely to be rehired.

There are a couple of rehabilitation centers, but they are so small they make little impact.

A drug conviction in Iraq makes it difficult to ever get a salaried job because traditional Iraqi culture views drug use as a “dishonorable crime,” which makes employers shy away, said addicts and government officials.

For Mr. Karim, the father of three who was an addict for eight years before going to jail, employment possibilities look bleak. He worked as a heavy equipment operator in construction, then as fighter for the Popular Mobilization Units. He sometimes bought crystal meth when he was training in Iran. Now no one will give him a salaried job, he said.

Compounding his problems is that he is illiterate because, as a farmer’s son, he was expected to stay home to work the land. His children are also unschooled.

As dusk fell, his middle daughter, 6-year old Rassoul, hung on her father’s arm.

“Can we have an ice cream?” she asked.

Mr. Karim reached in his pocket, but apparently there was nothing in it.

He kissed his daughter’s forehead: “Not today, habibti.”