Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Saturday, April 20th, 2024

Opium Has Deeply Penetrated Afghan Society

Taking opium to kill pain is an old tradition in the villages of Afghanistan. Today too, for many people it is a preferable medicine. Astonishing fact about this tradition is that opium is also given to children and women while in pain regardless of worries about them getting addicted to it. According to government statistics the number of addict people in the country is now around one and half million. This figure, unfortunately, includes women and children which is a very concerning trend. In Afghanistan, normally, the addiction of women to tobacco or opium has been quite uncommon. But opium and other forms of poppy are widely and easily available with cheap prices. This has made women and children more vulnerable to addiction. In country where 90 percent of world’s opium is produced, such annoying facts are not beyond expectations. Opium has penetrated deep into the Afghan society. Our youths are increasing moving astray by becoming addicted to drugs. Every year thousands of deaths are caused inside Afghanistan due to consumption of drugs. The drug from Afghanistan flows into many other countries of world where it causes further destruction to humanity. The beneficiaries of all the Afghan opium circling around the world are the drug traffickers and the Taliban. Taliban are believed to fund their operations majorly from the opium business and for this purpose they encourage the famers by whatsoever means possible to them to cultivate poppy in the fields. Recently the government has talked about decrement of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. There is zero poppy cultivation in a major number of provinces. This applies to the peaceful province only as in the insecure regions of Afghanistan, poppy is still cultivated with no fear and worries of government. Even if the graph of poppy production goes drastically down, the Afghan society has been deeply impacted. Afghan drug production is killing the Afghans themselves. It is the obligation of the government with the help of International community present in Afghanistan to take more serious and responsible measures to tackle the opium so that we can live a life free of drugs.