Today while walking on the Kote-Sangi’s recently built bridge, there were tens of drug-addicted people sitting, covering heads and smoking different kinds of drugs. Every passerby was murmuring, perhaps, insulting or praying to Allah Almighty that they did not have such addiction. Perhaps, many others were regretting how youngsters (some hardly at their twenties) get killed in the tragedy of drug.  There are some others who point finger towards neighboring countries that destroyed the lives of their compatriots as a large number of these became addicted while living as Afghan refugees in Islamic Republic of Iran.

Anyhow, Here we largely suffer from a vice triangle---narcotics, insurgency and poor governance or let’s say corruption. These challenges virtually have worked as driving force for one another. International community during past eleven years poured large amount of money and steered visible human resources too into the country but in comparison to that quantity, we terribly limp on almost all stages and spheres of life. The security situation is terrible on all accounts. Politics circulates around communal and lingual considerations. We have quite a vibrant democracy but only on the communal lines.

But the challenge that narcotics deal to the country is parallel to above fellows and necessitates serious attention to be eliminated. It does not cause less misery than Taliban-insurgents if it goes on current path. According to a report more than 1.5 million Afghans are addicted to opium or to products made of it, like hashish, heroin. The report also predicted that it might increase in coming years.

It is hard to understand what addiction means if you have not seen those who are addicted.  Many of them are left out in the public and certainly numbers of them will die in the upcoming harsh freezing weather. And as hundreds die due to addiction annually, it also increases social crimes.  In Herat Province, you cannot dare to wear new shoes and leave them outside of the hotel rooms. Guests just take a plastic bag and carry their shoes with themselves while going to hotel for taking lunch, dining or intending to stay overnight, because there are large numbers of addicted refugees who are deported from Iran.

Whatever is the reason, large number of Afghan refugees in Iran is addicted to drugs, particularly, those youngsters who left the country without their family members. When the Iranian security forces deport them back to Afghanistan, many of them have no place to go, because with carrying the sickness of addiction, they do not dare to go to their homes, and stay with their family members or, perhaps, some feel shy to do so.

In addition, the problem becomes double as the conservative cultural practices further press the addicts. If an employer becomes aware that the employee is addicted to drugs, he may fire him. The society cannot accept addicts. An addicted individual finds it too hard to get married. The first problem is that parents of a girl wouldn’t agree at any cost to let their daughter marry an addicted individual because they do not have good attitude towards him. They might think that he cannot bear the responsibility of married life or is not able to provide the necessity of their daughters. I agree with them. They are right. In Afghanistan the problem of addiction differs from those in developed or perhaps in developing countries.

Many people in the world consume drugs as kind of luxurious goods, and they have money and wealth to buy it. The case is quite different here. Addiction has mostly targeted lower layer of the society, who are involved in cultivating and growing opium. Or those who became refugees to neighboring countries and could not bear the back-breaking problem of refugee life. So, in order to avoid those challenges, they find no way other than reprimanding nerves in order not to feel the psychological pain. After addiction, there is no money to provide them drugs; however, it is cheap in the country.

Therefore, they start becoming parasite. The very social door is closed towards them, because they are not married. In a country like Afghanistan, finding a house or room for single is very difficult. Here being a single is a crime. If you walk to streets of Kabul or contact brokers, the first question is, “Are you married or not?” “If not, then sorry, we do not have room for rent.” Here marriage is a door of accepting people.

Additionally, poverty prevails in the country, and annually people die due to hunger. Majority of those who use drugs are illiterate. They cannot search for office job. Thus, they remain parasite. When all doors are closed, what they can do? The steal! They change into pickpocket. It means they start threatening the safety of people’s property. If the number was less, I was not worried. Recently I wrote several articles about the narcotics-caused challenges. The number of addicts is staggering. There are also reports that Afghan security forces too use drugs. This

phenomenon gives birth to another vicious cycle. They will cooperate with opium-lords and gangsters. The process may end up into poor governance, inefficiency of administration and spiraling growth of corruption---and ultimately the progression of instability and deterioration of security situation.