KABUL - Counternarcotics minister Salamat Azemi on Wednesday asked women to play a proactive role in protecting their family members from slipping into drug addiction.
Addressing a gathering here, Azemi said terrorism and drugs posed a huge threat to women who could play a key role in protection of family members from drug abuse.
She said hard labor and easy access to drugs in far-flung areas encouraged children and women into taking drugs to fight fatigue.
The minister said nearly 1.2 million children and 850,000 women were addicted to drug in Afghanistan, citing United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) report.
She termed drugs a global issue and asked the international community to cooperate with Afghanistan in dealing with the problem.
Presidential advisor Habibia Wahaj said illiteracy among women was the main reason behind their addiction to drugs. She urged government officials to pay attention to education of women.
She demanded more steps to prevent children and women from becoming drug addict because they were prime victims of terrorism as well.
Despite spending billions of dollars since 2001 on eradication of poppy and drug trafficking in Afghanistan, the issue could not be controlled.
A UNODC report shows poppy cultivation jumped by 25 percent and the illicit crop was grown on more areas in 2014, 2013 and 2016 respectively. Afghanistan currently produces 73 percent of the world’s drugs. (Pajhwok)