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06-23-07, 10:17 AM
By Terri Judd in Lashkar Gah
Published: 22 June 2007
A peaceful garden lies behind a high gate amid the bustle of Lashkar Gah's dusty streets, its walls decorated with Hogarthesque images proclaiming the evils of drug addiction.
A colourful illustration of a poppy field portrays a desperate addict, clad in rags and feeding his habit as an old woman bends in pain to harvest the crop. Children fight near a man with a gun. Above, is a blissfully contrasting image of happy, well-fed youngsters playing by a wheat field - Gin Lane and Beer Street for modern Afghanistan.
In the surrounding rooms men of all ages lie on bare mattresses enduring the aches and shivers of withdrawal, with only a whirring fan to combat the heat.
Afghanistan is notorious for feeding the world's heroin habit but it has an insidious and increasingly wide-spread problem itself.
Dr Rozat ullah Zia, who runs Helmand's only dedicated drug rehabilitation clinic and outpatient programme, estimates that 5 per cent of the population of the province - now said to be the world's largest producer of opium - are addicts.
He believes as many as 70,000 Helmand residents are hooked. His patients range from policemen to five-year-old children, and he has almost 1,000 registered on his books. Most are still awaiting treatment.
In an area where mother's rub opium on babies' gums or put it in tea to ease common complaints, the figure appears almost conservative. Old women store opium under their beds until it dries and appreciates in value, a form of saving. "Sometimes you see whole families who are all addicted," Dr Zia said. "In Helmand you can buy it from every person."
Pulling out a tiny sachet of heroin, he said it could be bought for anything from 50 to 200 Afghanis (50p to £2) - up to double the daily wage for a labourer - with addicts smoking as many as 10 packets a day.
Injecting the drugwas still fairly rare, he said, but with the boom in poppy growing, Dr Zia fears the situation is spiralling out of control.
"I met a woman who helped with the harvest for the first time. She tasted it on her hand and is now an addict. There is raised addiction linked to production.
"The problem gets worse day by day. Years ago, you would go to a village of 25 families and one would be addicted. Now in every 10 or 12 families you will find an addict."
In the past year, the clinic has treated 230 male inpatients and 300 mostly female outpatients, but up to six new addicts arrive each day.
Dost Mohammad said he had been an opium addict since the age of eight, when his brother-in-law gave him the drug while he was living as a refugee in Iran. Married at 15 when he returned to Afghanistan, he has a wife and five children but no job.
Asked how he fed his habit, he candidly held up an invisible rifle: "I took from people on motorcycles and in cars. At the time I just thought it was work because I got money but now I think it was very bad."
In the next room, Said Omar, an ancient-looking farmer from Garmsir, admitted he has been an addict for 16 years. He would like to see an Afghanistan free of drugs but admitted that he grows "poppy" himself. He began growing it after he developed a habit. He wants to grow wheat after he has received his treatment" an interpreter translated. "But he has not seen any way to grow anything else that will make him enough money to feed his children.
Sial Mohammed, 27, from Jalalabad, travelled for days via Kabul and Kandahar to reach the clinic. Unlike the other two, he is a heroin addict. "I was very poor and there was no work so I fell into bad company and started taking heroin," he said. "My family found out and rejected me."
The Wadan Clinic can treat 20 male inpatients at a time, but Dr Zia's team has helped hundreds of women through outreach programmes. They represent about a fifth of his patients.
In the five years since the fall of the Taliban regime, land under cultivation for poppy has grown from 8,000 to 165,000 hectares. Across the country 6,000 tonnes of opium is harvested annually - up from 3,400 in 2002. Last year production in Helmand rose 169 per cent and it is predicted to continue to spiral.
It is a fallacy, Dr Zia explained, that the people of Helmand do not understand the dangers of drug addiction, and many sufferers are ostracised. Nevertheless, there needs to be greater awareness, so he runs educational programmes. Pictures and slogans in the clinic warn of the perils of opium. "Drugs will probably not kill you but they will probably kill your mother," reads one.
The British-funded project claims to have a 70 per cent success rate, using a process of social and spiritual counselling followed by strict after-care. In a deeply religious society, the Koran features heavily. The clinic also involves families, insisting this has much to do with its success rate.
In the garden outside, Allah Uddin, 30, clung to the four-year-old son, Iqbal, he had not been allowed to see throughout the initial detox period. His brother, Allah Khan, watched. "He was jobless and we were waiting for opium to destroy his life," he explained. "We are much happier now." "Ideas are changing," added Dr Zia. "People know we are growing poppy and now we are destroying our own young generation."
Growing pains
* Total poppy production in Afghanistan increased by 49 per cent in 2006.
* The country accounts for about 90 per cent of the global opium supply.
* Since 2001, the area under poppy cultivation has risen from 8,000 hectares (less than 20,000 acres) to 165,000 hectares.
* A winter survey suggests that opium cultivation in Afghanistan this year may be as high as the record harvest last year.
* The high sale price of the opium is the main reason for poppy cultivation. For one hectare of opium poppy, farmers can earn nearly 10 times as much as a cereal crop.
* Out of Afghanistan's total opium production, 21 per cent is trafficked northwards through central Asia.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2692474.ece
Published: 22 June 2007
A peaceful garden lies behind a high gate amid the bustle of Lashkar Gah's dusty streets, its walls decorated with Hogarthesque images proclaiming the evils of drug addiction.
A colourful illustration of a poppy field portrays a desperate addict, clad in rags and feeding his habit as an old woman bends in pain to harvest the crop. Children fight near a man with a gun. Above, is a blissfully contrasting image of happy, well-fed youngsters playing by a wheat field - Gin Lane and Beer Street for modern Afghanistan.
In the surrounding rooms men of all ages lie on bare mattresses enduring the aches and shivers of withdrawal, with only a whirring fan to combat the heat.
Afghanistan is notorious for feeding the world's heroin habit but it has an insidious and increasingly wide-spread problem itself.
Dr Rozat ullah Zia, who runs Helmand's only dedicated drug rehabilitation clinic and outpatient programme, estimates that 5 per cent of the population of the province - now said to be the world's largest producer of opium - are addicts.
He believes as many as 70,000 Helmand residents are hooked. His patients range from policemen to five-year-old children, and he has almost 1,000 registered on his books. Most are still awaiting treatment.
In an area where mother's rub opium on babies' gums or put it in tea to ease common complaints, the figure appears almost conservative. Old women store opium under their beds until it dries and appreciates in value, a form of saving. "Sometimes you see whole families who are all addicted," Dr Zia said. "In Helmand you can buy it from every person."
Pulling out a tiny sachet of heroin, he said it could be bought for anything from 50 to 200 Afghanis (50p to £2) - up to double the daily wage for a labourer - with addicts smoking as many as 10 packets a day.
Injecting the drugwas still fairly rare, he said, but with the boom in poppy growing, Dr Zia fears the situation is spiralling out of control.
"I met a woman who helped with the harvest for the first time. She tasted it on her hand and is now an addict. There is raised addiction linked to production.
"The problem gets worse day by day. Years ago, you would go to a village of 25 families and one would be addicted. Now in every 10 or 12 families you will find an addict."
In the past year, the clinic has treated 230 male inpatients and 300 mostly female outpatients, but up to six new addicts arrive each day.
Dost Mohammad said he had been an opium addict since the age of eight, when his brother-in-law gave him the drug while he was living as a refugee in Iran. Married at 15 when he returned to Afghanistan, he has a wife and five children but no job.
Asked how he fed his habit, he candidly held up an invisible rifle: "I took from people on motorcycles and in cars. At the time I just thought it was work because I got money but now I think it was very bad."
In the next room, Said Omar, an ancient-looking farmer from Garmsir, admitted he has been an addict for 16 years. He would like to see an Afghanistan free of drugs but admitted that he grows "poppy" himself. He began growing it after he developed a habit. He wants to grow wheat after he has received his treatment" an interpreter translated. "But he has not seen any way to grow anything else that will make him enough money to feed his children.
Sial Mohammed, 27, from Jalalabad, travelled for days via Kabul and Kandahar to reach the clinic. Unlike the other two, he is a heroin addict. "I was very poor and there was no work so I fell into bad company and started taking heroin," he said. "My family found out and rejected me."
The Wadan Clinic can treat 20 male inpatients at a time, but Dr Zia's team has helped hundreds of women through outreach programmes. They represent about a fifth of his patients.
In the five years since the fall of the Taliban regime, land under cultivation for poppy has grown from 8,000 to 165,000 hectares. Across the country 6,000 tonnes of opium is harvested annually - up from 3,400 in 2002. Last year production in Helmand rose 169 per cent and it is predicted to continue to spiral.
It is a fallacy, Dr Zia explained, that the people of Helmand do not understand the dangers of drug addiction, and many sufferers are ostracised. Nevertheless, there needs to be greater awareness, so he runs educational programmes. Pictures and slogans in the clinic warn of the perils of opium. "Drugs will probably not kill you but they will probably kill your mother," reads one.
The British-funded project claims to have a 70 per cent success rate, using a process of social and spiritual counselling followed by strict after-care. In a deeply religious society, the Koran features heavily. The clinic also involves families, insisting this has much to do with its success rate.
In the garden outside, Allah Uddin, 30, clung to the four-year-old son, Iqbal, he had not been allowed to see throughout the initial detox period. His brother, Allah Khan, watched. "He was jobless and we were waiting for opium to destroy his life," he explained. "We are much happier now." "Ideas are changing," added Dr Zia. "People know we are growing poppy and now we are destroying our own young generation."
Growing pains
* Total poppy production in Afghanistan increased by 49 per cent in 2006.
* The country accounts for about 90 per cent of the global opium supply.
* Since 2001, the area under poppy cultivation has risen from 8,000 hectares (less than 20,000 acres) to 165,000 hectares.
* A winter survey suggests that opium cultivation in Afghanistan this year may be as high as the record harvest last year.
* The high sale price of the opium is the main reason for poppy cultivation. For one hectare of opium poppy, farmers can earn nearly 10 times as much as a cereal crop.
* Out of Afghanistan's total opium production, 21 per cent is trafficked northwards through central Asia.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2692474.ece