What kind of narcotics are produced in afghanistan

In , after the Soviet Union had withdrawn, the Taliban, a religious-political group often associated with terrorism, seized control of Afghanistan. Due to human rights violations, terrorism support, and increasing opium production, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan was isolated by most other world governments.

In an effort to gain international acceptance, the Taliban banned the production of opium in the year It is likely that this helped weaken the Taliban, making them vulnerable to US invasion 1 year later. Since their collapse in , the Taliban has spent the last 2 decades rebuilding and gradually gaining more control over the rural areas where poppy is grown and opium is produced.

They profited off of the booming industry by imposing taxes and tariffs on farmers, labs, and traders. The head of the Kabul office of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, Cesar Gudes, was quoted saying that the group has been relying on opium trade as their main source of income. During the war in Afghanistan, the US focused on limiting the production of opium to stop the Taliban from profiting, amongst other reasons.

These efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. Farmers and laborers, who depend on the production of opium, grew angry with the US involvement in Kabul and began to support the Taliban. With the Taliban recently gaining control over Kabul and US involvement retreating, Afghanistan is experiencing a state of economic and humanitarian crisis. Millions of civilians have been uprooted from their homes while foreign aid has been cut and local spending is decreasing.

These factors are likely to cause many impoverished Afghans to be more dependent on the production of opium. In , opium harvesting supplied , jobs for the country. He vowed that Afghanistan will not be a country of opium cultivation and that they will bring opium cultivation to zero again, in reference to the ban.

To stop Heroin production and drug smuggling, Mujahid says the country will need help. The international community should help us so that we can have alternative crops. We can provide alternative crops. With cables for whips and slung rifles, they ordered the group of men out of their fetid quarters.

Some came staggering out, others were forced to the ground. The sudden clinking of lighters followed another order to hand over belongings; the men preferred to use up all the drugs they possessed before they were confiscated.

One man struck a match beneath a piece of foil, his sunken cheeks deepening as he sucked in the smoke.

He stared blankly into the distance. Another man was reluctant. Taliban fighter Qari Fedayee was tying up the hands of another. An elderly, bespectacled man raised his voice. He is a poet, he announced, and if they let him go he will never use drugs again.

He scribbled verses on a piece of paper to prove his point. What drove him to drugs? In the end, they were at least men rounded up. They were taken to the district police station, where all their belongings — drugs, wallets, knifes, rings, lighters, a juice box — were burned in a pile since they are forbidden to take them to the treatment center.

As the men crouched nearby, a Taliban officer watched the plumes of smoke, counting prayer beads. Once a military base, Camp Phoenix, established by the U. The men are stripped and bathed. Their heads are shaved. Here, everyone, young and old, including the men, women and children are drug addicts. Most people here use drugs together, in groups, and out in the open. The lives of the villagers revolve around smoking drugs. When they have it, they use it.

The reason I became addicted to drugs was unemployment and poverty. I went to Iran, far away from home. I was unemployed and the situation was bad, so I got addicted to drugs. So, when I return here, I thought that the situation will be better. The situation is bad here as well. I have been using drugs for almost fifteen years. It affects the children too.

Parents not only use themselves, but also give drugs to their children. In addition to heroin, opium and crystal meth, the addicts of Bazobala are also familiar with other drug options, like tramadol tablets. It is a cheap alternative to heroin and opium. Those whose consumption is high, like myself, my spending is also high.

I use may be one or one and half packet. A packet is 25 32 cents to 50 Afghanis. This is Fatima. She has been addicted to drugs for 30 years. Fatima, her husband and her sons use drugs together.

I have asthma. I go to work in the desert and mountains until late. Villagers here work in farming and raising animals. Young people go to the mountains to collect grass for the animals, and the children are shepherds. The idyllic life of these villages is disrupted by narcotics, brought in from neighboring provinces. Residents say they have repeatedly informed security agencies about the smugglers, but no action is taken.

The villagers want the government's attention. They want help, and they want an addiction treatment center. There is only one bed clinic in Waras, which clearly lacks the ability to treat all the addicts in an area of tens of thousands of people. Local officials want more. Everyone is addicted to drugs. These people are all unfortunate. The reason is unemployment and poverty. The government does not care about these people.

I request from the government, the international community, and human rights to build a hospital in the Shiwqol area. The hospital should be beds or so so these people can be treated.

Police have been recently rounding up addicts in Kabul, giving them a choice to either sober up or face beatings. Others will be cured. After they are cured, they can be free. The addicts rounded up in these raids have been men. But women fall victim to drug addiction, too. Before the Taliban took over, our VOA Afghan Service team went to Balk province in northern Afghanistan and discovered the disturbing way women addicts can be preyed upon.

This is one of the most populous provinces in northern Afghanistan, and Mazar-e-Sharif is the fourth largest city in the country. Mazar-e-Sharif hosts internally displaced people, IDPs, from nearby provinces.

Security in the city brings people to come live here. The city suffers from a large presence of drug addicts. Local officials say more than , people in Balkh province, including women and children, use drugs.

Easy access to drugs has led to more addicts. In the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, some women addicts are homeless, and some seek shelter in the cemetery at night. I was 13 years old, and my father was not there when my brother and mother married me. Now I am 31 years old, and I am lost. My mother-in-law was beating me. My father-in-law was beating me. I was smoking opium. I used to drink opium and that's why they were beating me and telling me not to eat it. You are free.

I live in a tent. But Zohra says she is not addicted to drugs by her own free will. She says her family got her hooked. They used drugs in groups, she explains, to lessen the intense pain caused by their work as carpet weavers. Zohra uses marijuana and opium.

She has tried to quit several times but concerns about being homeless led her to relapse. She walks the streets of Mazar-e-Sharif at night, begging and collecting usable garbage. This is NOT normal practice for women—because generally, it is not safe here for a woman to be out alone at night.

At eight per cent of the population, this rate is twice the global average. It is in the eyes of its own citizens, dependent on a daily dose of opium and heroin above all - but also cannabis, painkillers and tranquilizers," said Mr. Significantly, many of them began taking drugs as migrants or refugees in camps in Iran and Pakistan," noted Mr. Yet, instead of easing pain, opiate use is causing even greater misery: it creates behavioural, social and health problems, crime, accidents, and loss of productivity in the workplace.