KANDAHAR - Although large swathes of land in southern Kandahar province have been cleared of poppy, the number of drug addicts still remains at a very high level.

According to a recent periodic report on poppy eradication in Afghanistan, 2,458 hectares of poppy area in Kandahar province has been cleared of the illicit crop this year compared to only 287 hectares last year. The report was published jointly by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Afghan Ministry of Counter-Narcotics.

Yet, according to the Ministry of Public Health, about 100,000 people in Kandahar are addicted to illicit drugs. This figure in 2003 was about 20,000.

There are a number of factors people become drug dependent.

“Loss of family members, unemployment, poverty and lack of education cause people become drug dependents,” said Dr Najeebullah, Coordinator of the Kandahar Rehabilitation Centre that is run by an NGO, the Welfare Association for the Development of Afghanistan (WADAN), in an interview. “Thirty years of war made many Afghans migrate to Iran and Pakistan. Many became addicts there before returning to Afghanistan.” He added that the easy access to illicit drugs eventually make people addicts.

According to UNODC, about 90 percent of the world's opium originates from Afghanistan. UNODC’s Afghan Opium Survey from last year showed a dramatic 133 per cent increase in the farm-gate value of opium compared with 2010. UNODC estimates that narcotic trade generated up to US$ 1.4 billion last year, about 10 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Afghanistan's southern provinces including Helmand and Kandahar are the main sources for poppy cultivation.

In his message on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on 26 June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said development in Afghanistan is being hindered by the highest rates of opiate prevalence in the world.

The rehabilitation centre in Kandahar treats patients in different phases. After being registered, the patients receive health education; reduce the amount of illicit drugs they use for the first three months. In the next phase, social workers closely work and run discussions with them about the impact of taking illicit drugs. The clinic also involves them in sport activities, health education, spiritual and group therapies, and finally prepares them to quit.

Their patients are men and women with age range of 12 to 60 years old, with majority aged from 18 to 40 years. From 2005 to date, about 770 people have been treated in the clinic. WADAN also provides treatment in their homes because, as Dr Najeebullah said, many people prefer not to visit the clinic because of stigma attached of being seen as drug addicts.

“We also don’t have the capacity to treat all of our clients in our clinic that has only 20 beds,” he added.

WADAN used to run rehabilitation centre in prison and another part of the town, but because of lack of funding, these two centres were closed down.

According to him, 685 males and 560 females have so far received treatment in their homes, and 1,133 people have been registered and placed in the waiting list. As a priority, the clinic admits only those who are committed to quit.

The clinic also runs awareness campaigns by talking to people in the community and mullahs about the danger of drug abuse.

To stop the use, cultivation and business of narcotics in the province, UNODC in Kandahar has implemented various programmes.

“We provide supports to the Government and implement programmes through our IPs (Implementing Partners) to help the drug addicts. We also have programmes to provide alternative livelihoods to the farmers in order to desist poppy and grow other legal crops,” said Abdul Kadir Palwal, an officer at UNODC in Kandahar.

The UNODC has also provided supports to law enforcement agencies, judicial system, Ministry of Public Health and Counter-Narcotics Police of Afghanistan to build their capacity to prevent the spread of drug abuse, illicit business and cultivation of narcotics in Kandahar.

By UNAMA Kandahar