Less opium, More Addicts

After six years on the rise, opium production levels fell 19 percent in 2015, but the number of addicts has doubled to 3 million since 2012.

Poor rainfall and snow in the mountains caused big losses for farmers who had returned to opium in a big way particularly in areas under the control of the Taleban.

After six years on the rise, opium production levels fell 19 percent in 2015, but the number of addicts has doubled to 3 million since 2012.

Poor rainfall and snow in the mountains caused big losses for farmers who had returned to opium in a big way particularly in areas under the control of the Taleban.

The Afghanistan Opium Survey 2015 notes that Helmand remains the country’s major opium-cultivating province, growing 47 percent of the total crop.

The survey, jointly done by the Ministry of Counter Narcotics and UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), reports the southern region has the country’s largest share of national opium production with 58 percent recorded, which equals some 1,900 metric tonnes. Afghanistan’s second most important opium producing region is in the west, responsible for 22 percent of national production (720 metric tonnes), followed by the eastern region with 13 percent (450 metric tonnes). The remaining areas (north-eastern, northern and central regions) account for less than 8 percent of opium production.

The Ministry of Justice is claiming some success in curbing drug smuggling with some arrests. Ahmad Khaled Moahed, the spokesperson, says vehicles and guns have been confiscated from smugglers.  “Some 4.5 tonnes of heroin, 20 kg of morphine, 158 tonnes hashish and 136 guns have been confiscated from smugglers,” he says.

Among those arrested on smuggling charges are 37 government officials, 14 women and 2 expatriates. The arrests have been mainly in Nangarhar, Kandahar, Kabul, Helmand, Badakhshan and Nimroz provinces. Meanwhile, the courts have convicted nearly 600 people on drug offences.

Baz Mohammad Ahmadi, the deputy director for counter narcotics in the Ministry of Interior Affairs claims many heroin factories have been destroyed.

Pir Bakhsh Gardeewal, member of the parliamentary counter narcotics commission, is however sceptical. “The government is weak and has not been able to retain any big arrests,” he told Killid. According to him, big smugglers who were arrested have used influence to escape custody and leave the country. “If arrests have been made they are of small smugglers,” he says.

Evidence collected by the parliamentary commission reveals that the authorities have been rounding up ordinary people as drug smugglers and putting them under arrest.