A World Bank-funded project for rehabilitation of drug addicts is being launched in Kabul and Paktia. Addicts going through treatment and rehabilitation will join a nine-month vocational training course aimed at improving their livelihood. They would learn carpet-weaving, tailoring, embroidery, repair works of mobile phones, bicycles, motorbikes etc. It will help the unemployment and lack of skill among the increasing number of drug addicts a large number of whom live in capital Kabul.

The Government needs to increase focus and international donors’ support projects for rehabilitation of drug addicts across the country. There has been less attention on this rampant deadly issue.

The increasing number of drug addicts in Kabul is causing serious social problems. According to official statistics, the number of drug addicts in Afghanistan has reached over one million, of which about 60,000 are women.

The Government has no efficient rehabilitation program. There is not a single hospital for drug addicts in capital Kabul. Afghan refugees returning from Iran makes the largest number of addicts. It is just one of the problems that come with Afghan refugees, besides the spread of HIV AIDS, prostitution and other social problems. With easy availability of all kinds of drugs at cheap prices, it is spreading fast in other parts of the country.

Life Is Beautiful is one of the few organizations working particularly on rehabilitation of drug addicts in Kabul. With a group of volunteers, their work has been extraordinary, despite lack of resources and donor support.

The US and its NATO allies caught up in an exit strategy, are largely ignoring the focus on poppy eradication, and our government with some bigwigs of the power corridor involved in drug profits have always been opposing effective and harsh programs of eradication.

The government and international forces should enforce the poppy eradication campaign. The war on poppy is forgotten. The drug industry export deaths to millions of people around the world, and the number of drug addicts is on a rampant increase in Afghanistan.

If the current policy of bribing the poppy-growing farmers continues, which benefits the drug mafia and opium business tycoons who make the real deal from all this, it will keep Afghanistan the biggest producer of drugs in the world for the second consecutive decade.

Meanwhile, the government should pay greater attention towards rehabilitation of drug addicts and its spread. They must launch effective programs. There are very few special hospitals for them across the country. The number of women drug addicts—60,000—is something that should deeply worry us all.