It is really hard to hear any good news about the tragic situation of myriads of drug addicted people across the country; but whenever we hear that there are people who deep down have sympathy or hold practical steps to help them, we may find a feeling of appreciation.

Earlier this month, BBC Persian released a clip of a wedding in "Mother Dormitory". It was wedding of two drug addicts who finally with the Help of Liala Haidari gave up smoking drugs and started a new conjugal life.
Liala Haidari is a poet and a returnee refugee from neighboring Iran where a large portion of the entire addicts have come from.  Presently she runs a restaurant, Taj Begum Restaurant, attached with a dormitory, Mother Dormitory, where she helps drug addicts to give up drug consumption and start a new life. Now she has become a popular face and gets huge appreciation from intellectual layers of the society. She has made sacrifices, including her personal life.

In an interview, talking about her personal life, she was narrating her story with tears, "I have suffered a lot. My husband left me because he was saying that I am living with drug addicted people which is a stigma".

As I hinted it is really a rare issue seeing motivated individuals like Laila Haidari to step ahead and take the hands of drug victims and pull them back on the track. Considering the level of opium production in the country, it may be felt that Afghans have appropriate view of production as well as consumption. But the notion is totally wrong and incorrect.

However, the rate of drug addicts spirals horrendously but people continue to bear humiliating concept of those whoever has drug addiction. Indeed, getting drug addicted is the very first step to close all doors of social acceptance.  Even addiction of a member of a family defames the entire family and people mostly avoid getting engaged in any form of relationship.

Therefore, due to strong family bondage, people try their best; first of all, to keep addiction of their relatives compel them to give up drug consumption. If they fail, sometimes they just break all ties with him/her and force him/her out of their family. Therefore, thousands are left out in the public and they are unable to find jobs.

They do not get support and are unable to attract feeling of sympathy from the community. They are behaved like criminals that are doomed to death. It is only by their death, they may get purity of their guilt.

Talking with common people, we can recognize the deep hatred and humiliation against drug addicts. Many people openly say that government should load them in container and unload in the oceans for the sharks! Some other are saying that they should be buried alive in mass graves. Others hope that floods wash them away and live none alive.

Indeed, whenever I put the issue with common people in small gatherings, none supported the notions that the government or any other organizations should hold their hands and bring them back to normal life. Once in such gathering, I said asked what would be their reactions if they were their sons and brothers.

Would they stand on their suggestion of eradicating them and depriving them of their right to life? After murmurings, one told me that no one has forced them to consume drugs. They are not in a condition to return to normal life. Being alive only prolongs their sufferings and they will soon die of hunger or extreme cold weather.

Perhaps, they were right in this case. Annually, many of those who are left without shelter freeze up and die. I cannot forget last year when the temperature was around minus 10-15, a drug addicted approached me and begged for 10 Afghani to buy a loaf. When I offered an orange, he stared at eyes and said with heart-wrenching sound, "Brother, I will get frozen if I get an orange.

 It is really a miracle seeing those who are drug addicted and have no shelter to survive the cruel temperature of Kabul. There is no accurate data to show how many of them survive, but certainly, many of them die annually due to harsh winter yet nobody cares because addiction is not viewed as kind of illness rather a guilt.

It should be noticed that religious beliefs also play key role in developing such negative notion against drug consumers. Consuming any intoxicants is strictly forbidden. Those who are involved in business of intoxicants are also guilty. And those who consume that by his money someone is going to buy intoxicants, he also should avoid paying otherwise will be punished by Allah Almighty in the hereafter.

Therefore, many of them ultimately leave their families and do not have source of income to pay for drugs and start begging. But due to dominant negative approach towards them, mostly they rebuffed and only receive humiliation and mortification instead of few coins.

Considering high domestic drug consumption, the situation is already tragic. However, there is no data to show how many people die due to drugs, but putting a glance hundreds of people in Kabul city sleep in the open air because of their addiction, certainly thousands die annually across the country while nobody notices.  If it is not controlled and the current policy of government——not rooting out cultivation of opium—the tolls of drugs may exceed the casualties dealt by Taliban and al-Qaeda.