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December 29, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Democracy Now!: In the 13 years since the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the country’s opium production has doubled, now accounting for about 90 percent of the world’s supply. To learn more, we are joined by Matthieu Aikins, a Kabul-based journalist whose latest report for Rolling Stone magazine explores Afghanistan’s heroin boom. Full news...
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November 25, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
American Free Press: The United States has been gradually withdrawing troops from Afghanistan since 2011. According to President Barack Hussein Obama, only 9,800 “peacekeeping” troops will remain by the end of December, and all the troops are supposed to be gone by the end of 2016, ending the longest war in American history. But what exactly are we still doing in Afghanistan after 13 years and why did we really go there in the first place? Full news...
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October 21, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Reuters: Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has hit an all-time high despite years of counter-narcotics efforts that have cost the US 7.6bn USD (4.7bn GBP), according to a US government watchdog. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported that Afghan farmers grew an “unprecedented” 209,000 hectares (523,000 acres) of opium poppy in 2013, surpassing the previous high of 193,000 hectares in 2007, said John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. Full news...
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October 6, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
NPR: No country grows as many opium poppies or produces as much illicit opium as Afghanistan. In 2013, opium production soared to a record high of 5,500 tons, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. A study published last week adds to a growing body of research showing that Afghanistan also has a high rate of drug usage — about 5.1 percent, or 1 in 20 people. Opioids and cannabis were the most popular. Full news...
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June 27, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Associated Press: The United Nations’ drug-fighting agency says global drug use appears to be stable, but increasing opium production in Afghanistan is a cause for concern. The Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimated in an annual report Thursday that between 162 and 324 million people used an illicit drug at least once in 2012, little changed from the previous year. Full news...
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May 15, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: The number of drug addicts has doubled in two years in northern Jawzjan province, where most robbery incidents are blamed on junkies. Health officials say the population of addicts had risen from 1,100 in 2012 to more than 2,000 in 2014. In Shiberghan, the number of drug addicts has increased to 300 from 100 a year back. Full news...
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May 7, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Killid Group: IMC report - It is no surprise that tens of thousands of children are exposed to drug use in their homes. But what is worrying is that the use of a glue used by shoemakers and petrol by children is rising alarmingly in Kabul. “Donors have no interest in supporting deaddiction.” Full news...
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April 19, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Killid Group: The country’s deaddiction centres are not able to keep up with the spiraling drug abuse. With nearly 1.6 million addicts including children and women the rampant use of an assortment of drugs has become a serious public health crisis. The Independent Media Consortium (IMC) Productions investigates. Full news...
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April 2, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
RT: Finding a solution to the thriving heroin production in Afghanistan has been on the back burner ever since the Americans occupied the country. The new Afghan president who will be elected next weekend will have to battle record opium harvests. Full news...
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March 28, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Metro: Addicts in the world’s most drug-affected Afghan region are feeding their own children opium to keep them quiet, and selling relatives to fund their own heroin habits, Metro has learned. And such is the desperation to pay for drugs, any ruse will do. Abdurahim Mutar, 36, admits trading in his own sister, Tazagul. Full news...
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March 27, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
American Free Press: The tragic overdose death of Academy Award winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman on February 2, brought renewed interest to the subject of cheap heroin on America’s streets. Across the country, heroin use is on the rise, despite the billions of dollars spent by United States law enforcement fighting it. Full news...
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January 5, 2014 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: Afghanistan’s booming narcotics trade risks splintering the country into a “fragmented criminal state” if the government and its western allies do not step up efforts to tackle opium production, a senior UN official has warned. Opium farming in Afghanistan, the world’s main producer of the drug, hit a record high this year, with farmers harvesting a crop worth nearly 1bn USD (610m GBP) to them, and far more to the traffickers who take about four-fifths of the profit. Full news...
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November 13, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Associated Press: Afghanistan’s opium production surged this year to record levels, despite international efforts over the past decade to wean the country off the narcotics trade, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.N.’s drug control agency. The harvest this past May resulted in a staggering 5,500 metric tons (6,060 tons) of opium, 49 percent higher than last year and more than the combined output of the rest of the world. Full news...
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November 3, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The New York Times: The addicts stalk the streets of this border post like hollowed-out skeletons, hair matted by filth and eyes glassy. The villages that hug the roads are veritable zombie towns, where families of men, women and children hide their addiction within barren mud compounds. “Sometimes I feel it is better to die than live like this,” said Haidar, 30, seated on the floor of his living room beside a small tin of sugarlike powder. Full news...
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October 9, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Reuters: Afghanistan risks becoming a “full-fledged narco-state” without international support to help create alternative jobs for its people, a senior United Nations official said on Wednesday. Yury Fedotov, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), painted a bleak picture of Afghanistan’s narcotics problem before next year’s withdrawal of NATO-led combat forces. Full news...
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September 30, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Daily News Egypt: The revelation that the number of opium-addicted Afghan children has reached new highs is a sad, unintended consequence of the war in that country. It dramatically illustrates how adult war games can doom generations of children to a miserable life. It is one of the tragic legacies of a disastrous war. The extent of health problems in children as a result of such exposure is not known. Full news...
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September 13, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: The amount of Afghan farmland planted with cannabis fell by nearly a fifth last year after one province launched a fierce eradication campaign, but a bumper crop meant that actual production rose compared with 2011, according to the UN. Officials in southern Uruzgan province, which borders Kandahar and Helmand, largely stamped out farming of the drug because of worries it was financing the Taliban. Full news...
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August 20, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Killid Group: As compared to previous years arrests of drug traffickers has fallen this year and drug addiction levels show no sign of slowing down. An investigation by NematullahTanin. “You can obtain any type of narcotics at any time of day or night,” says a drug seller in Kabul’s Silo Park who wants to be anonymous. Full news...
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July 24, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AlterNet: Drug users are drawn to bridges. They offer a modicum of privacy and camaraderie to go about the illegal business of staving off opiate withdrawal and tamping down painful feelings. On a recent trip to Kabul, Afghanistan, I stood among dozens of men injecting heroin and inhaling opium vapors huddled under scarves in small groups under the Pul-i-Sokhta bridge – the name means “burned bridge.” Full news...
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June 30, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
VOA: Afghanistan once again was the world’s largest opium producer in 2012, churning out 74 percent of the world illegal opium. According to the United Nations, Afghanistan’s drug-fueled economy both funds the insurgency there and threatens to further undermine the country’s fragile economy and security. Not only is Afghanistan yet again the world’s largest grower and producer of illegal opium. Full news...
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May 30, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Reuters: Impoverished Afghanistan, already plagued by insurgency and struggling to contain crippling rates of opium addiction, faces another potential headache with spiraling usage of the synthetic drug crystal methamphetamine. The growing use of the drug, known as crystal meth or ice, comes at a critical time. Full news...
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April 29, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Truthout: A new United Nations report on the state of opium cultivation in Afghanistan reveals a worsening situation, after more than a decade of US and NATO occupation. It confirms the failure of counternarcotics missions in the country. In 2012, poppy cultivation rose for a third year in a row and now extends over 154,000 hectares, an 18 percent increase over 2011. Full news...
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April 16, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Associated Press: Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has been increasing for a third year in a row and is heading for a record high, the U.N. said in a report released Monday. The boom in poppy cultivation is at its most pronounced in the Taliban’s heartland in the south, the report showed, especially in regions where troops of the U.S.-led coalition have been withdrawn or are in the process of departing. Full news...
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April 10, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
BBC News: Afghanistan produces 90 percent of all opiate drugs in the world, but until recently was not a major consumer. Now, out of a population of 35 million, more than a million are addicted to drugs - proportionately the highest figure in the world. Right in the heart of Kabul, on the stony banks of the Kabul River, drug addicts gather to buy and use heroin. It's a place of misery and degradation. Full news...
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March 1, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Japan Times: A report just released by the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan states that there were 2,754 civilian deaths and 4,805 civilian injuries in that country during 2012. Unmentioned is a serious side effect of the conflict: the high number of opium-addicted children in Afghanistan. The number has increased systematically the past few years. Full news...
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February 25, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Deutsche Welle: While opium trade might be lucrative for some of those involved, many find themselves at the losing end. Daughters of farmers who find themselves desperate and indebted are used as little more than currency. To provide for their families, many Afghan farmers turn to the relatively lucrative practise of poppy cultivation. Full news...
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February 22, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Pluto Press: As Obama proclaims that the US adventure in Afghanistan will draw to a close over the next couple years, we may look at the balance sheet with respect to one of the occupation’s alleged justifications: the fight against Afghan heroin. The outcome has been a total failure. Full news...
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February 12, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: They play badminton, kick a ball around and huddle over computer games just like normal children. Except that they are recovering drug addicts aged around three to 12, representing a growing proportion of drug users in war-torn Afghanistan. In response, increasing numbers of rehabilitation centers are weaning such children off their addiction and giving them a new appetite for life... Full news...
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January 25, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Wall Street Journal: The U.S. military has blacklisted Afghanistan’s largest private airline, alleging it is smuggling “bulk” quantities of opium on civilian flights to Tajikistan, a corridor through which the drugs reach the rest of the world. Kam Air was barred this month from receiving U.S. military contracts by U.S. Central Command chief Marine Gen. James Mattis, according to U.S. military officials. Full news...
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January 9, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Vanity Fair: “Just look at this view,” said my guide, as he waved his arm expansively from right to left. We had just emerged onto the sun-drenched roof terrace of a so-called narco-villa in Kabul’s Sherpur neighborhood. Sherpur is the epicenter of an eye-catching architectural style in a district where the gusher of money from drugs and corruption has found full expression. Full news...
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