The Telegraph (UK): Afghanistan is seeing a boom in methamphetamine drug production, potentially providing a new revenue stream for the Taliban in a country already notorious for opium and heroin. The United Nations said Afghan seizures of the powerful stimulant drug had increased exponentially in the past five years and then “gone off the scale” in 2019. Click
Al Jazeera: Users describe why they are increasingly addicted to so-called tablet k pills, a drug that officials know little about. A group of well-to-do young men in their 20s get out and start discussing a new drug that has, in their words, gained popularity among young Afghans. “Hashish is nothing. Opium is nothing. All anyone
BBC News: Despite the incredible resources the American military were pouring in, Dr Mansfield and his team are now convinced that the US Air Force was using 21st century fighter jets to bomb little more than mud huts. Opium now accounts for around a third of Afghanistan’s GDP, he says. It is by far the country’s biggest
AFP: A vast field of towering white poppies sways gently in the breeze, silky petals sometimes tumbling to the ground, a visible marker of the resilience of Afghanistan’s lucrative opium trade. The sight of a seemingly endless expanse of opium-producing flowers is common across rural Afghanistan, but this farm is in the centre of government-controlled Lashkar
Time: The U.S. Sent Its Most Advanced Fighter Jets to Blow Up Cheap Opium Labs. Now It’s Canceling the Program – After hundreds of airstrikes failed to curtail the Taliban’s $200 million-a-year opium trade, the U.S. military quietly ended a yearlong campaign that targeted drug labs and networks laced around the Afghan countryside. The end of
1TV: The move is part of efforts for good governance, institutionalization of reforming public administration, facilitation of effectiveness in activities related to preparing counter-narcotics plans, policies and strategies, law enforcement, reduction of drug demand, treatment of drug addicts, promotion of narcotics alternative, implementation of laws against drug smugglers, removal of interference among government institutions and
Tolo News: Counter-narcotics department of Herat province said that more than 60,000 addicts exist in Herat province of which 13 percent are females. The department said that despite the high number of females addicts in the province there are only three treatment centers for them, which have 150 beds available. Click here to read more
Ayaz Gul VOA News December 12, 2018 ISLAMABAD — Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran have pledged to increase cooperation and information-sharing for effectively combating the trafficking of Afghan opiates. War-shattered Afghanistan remains the world’s largest producer of opium, though the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime noted in its latest survey the opium cultivation decreased by 20 percent in
Ayaz Gul VOA News December 7, 2018 ISLAMABAD — The Taliban has killed at least 14 Afghan soldiers and taken more than 20 others hostage in the western Afghan province of Herat, which borders Iran, officials confirmed Friday. Separately, a counter-Taliban airstrike in central Uruzgan province killed at least seven Afghan security forces. The latest violence