The increasing number of drug addicts in Kabul is causing serious social problems. One finds large number of them in areas infamous for addicts, where life has become irritating for ordinary public. A new report on drug addicts in Afghanistan has shocking statistics. The official recorded number has increased over one million, of which about 60,000 are women.
The Government has no efficient program for drug addicts. There is no hospital for drug addicts in capital. Afghan refugees returning from Iran makes the largest number of drug addicts. It is just one of the problems that come with Afghan refugees, besides the spread of HIV AIDS, prostitution and other social problems. With easy availability of all kinds of drugs at cheap prices, it is spreading fast in other parts of the country.
Life is Beautiful is one of the few organizations working particularly on rehabilitation of drug addicts in Kabul. With a group of volunteers, their work has been extraordinary, despite lack of resources and donor support.
The US and its NATO allies caught up in the prioritizing of an exit strategy are largely ignoring the focus on poppy eradication, and some bigwigs of the power corridor involved in drug profits have always been opposing effective and harsh programs of eradication.
Our neighboring countries including Russia have been calling for active anti-narcotics action in Afghanistan.
The government and international forces should enforce the poppy eradication campaign. The war on poppy is forgotten. Aside from the fact that a huge part of the financial support to insurgents comes from transport and smuggling of opium, it's also exporting deaths to millions of people around the world, and the number of drug addicts is increasing in Afghanistan. Taliban militants get $400 million a year through direct and indirect revenue from poppy cultivation, transportation and trade.
If the current policy of bribing the poppy-growing farmers continues, which benefits the drug mafia and opium business tycoons who make the real deal from all this, it will keep Afghanistan the biggest producer of drugs in the world for the second consecutive decade.
The government and international community should step up efforts against poppy eradication.
Meanwhile, the government should pay greater attention toward rehabilitation of drug addicts and its spread. They must launch effective programs. There are very few special hospitals for them across the country. The number of women drug addicts—60,000—is something that should deeply worry us all.