Demand for drug addiction intervention increases in Afghanistan

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by Change | 21 Apr 2010

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The quantity of opium produced in Afghanistan is resulting in more drug addicts in the country, it has been stated.

Increasing numbers of people are in need of drug addiction help in Afghanistan because of the quantity of opiates and hashish the country produces.

This is the warning from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which said that no other nation in the world produced as much opium, hashish and heroin as the Asian country, IRIN reports.

Zalmai Afzali, a spokesman from the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics, told the news provider that there are now 1.5 million drug users in Afghanistan, which is a stark increase from the 920,000 recorded in 2005.

Approximately 40 drug addiction treatment centres exist in Afghanistan, and many patients attending them have contracted the HIV virus. A study by the World Bank four years ago showed that at least three per cent of drug users in Kabul, the country's capital, were diagnosed HIV positive - and this number is likely to have risen since.

UNODC country representative Jean-Luc Lemahieu told IRIN that the supply of drugs was creating a demand for substances among Afghanis.

"Traditionally, consuming countries have become producers of synthetic drugs," he explained.

"In turn, producing countries have become consumers."

According to the World Bank, 90 per cent of the world's illegal opium comes from Afghanistan.

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