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Afghanistan’s war on drugs

Kabul is the frontline in the country’s war on drugs and it is a battle authorities are losing.

Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
A poppy field in full bloom in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Last year, the UNODC estimates farmers harvested a record 6,400 tons of opium. The country supplies the world with 90 percent of its heroin. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
By Steve Chao
Published On 10 May 2015

Kabul, Afghanistan – Afghanistan’s poppy fields are thriving, with cultivation of the crop hitting record highs last year. Poppy produces opium, the main ingredient in heroin. Already, the country supplies 90 percent of the world’s heroin, leading to tens of thousands of deaths every year.

Not only is Afghanistan the global leader in opium production, but Afghans are now the leading consumers of their own drugs. The number of Afghan drug addicts now stands at nearly three million, up from less than 500,000 just two years ago. One Afghan health official describes the drug scourge as a “tsunami for our country”.

With NATO troops pulling out and local law enforcement agencies ill-equipped and underfunded, production looks set to increase even further. And with the Taliban and al–Qaeda funded by the drug trade, fears are rising that further instability could wreak more havoc on this war-torn nation.

In Afghanistan’s Billion Dollar Drug War, 101 East ventures deep into Taliban territory to meet up with a high-level smuggler who reveals his covert operation. They also go on patrol with a ragtag police unit charged with destroying the poppy fields that feed the habits of drug addicts worldwide.

Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
A police officer conceals himself near poppy fields, in Southern Afghanistan, that are soon to be destroyed. Despite police efforts, 2015 is expected to yield a record crop of this illicit drug. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
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Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
An officer, in southern Afghanistan, helps destroy a field of poppy. Many farmers pay Taliban insurgents to protect their crop. Heroin trafficking is blamed for fuelling the country's insurgency. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
A team of Afghan police wearily look on as an angry farmer approaches them during an operation to destroy poppy fields in Zhari, Afghanistan. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
Kandahari farmer Fazel Rehman, stands before his new crop of poppies. After years of war, Rehman says growing drugs is the only way for him to feed his family. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
A young orphan looks on in southern Afghanistan. A new study has said alarming numbers of children in Afghanistan, especially in rural areas, are becoming addicted to heroin. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
A man shines shoes beside the corpses of two addicts in Kabul, Afghanistan. With little funding to help those hooked on drugs, it may take days for the bodies of dead addicts to be cleared by the police. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
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Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
Drug addicts are kept behind barbed wire, and under armed guard in a treatment centre set up by police in Kandahar in what used to be a NATO base. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
Heroin addicts, at an addiction treatment centre in Kabul, take part in a farewell ceremony for two members who have managed to stay clean for 13 days. A new nationwide survey suggests there are as many as 2.9 million drug users in the country. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
An armed guard watches over the office of Kandahar's deputy governor. In November 2014, the provincial leader was assassinated. With security still an issue, Afghanistan's restive south has been unable to fully tackle the drug problem. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
Suspected drug traffickers look on from a cell in Sarposa Prison in Kandahar. With a lack of funding, police in the south say they do not have the funds to transport many arrested to a special drug court in Afghanistan's capital. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
Nasrullah Khan, Kandahar's deputy of counter-narcotics, inspects a cache of seized opium and heroin. Despite thousands arrests of traffickers, he says the drug trade continues to grow. He says more international help is needed. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
A convicted drug smuggler looks on in Sarposa prison, in Kandahar. In 2014, one of the country's top traffickers paid a multimillion dollar bribe and was allowed to walk out of jail. Authorities have been unable to track him down. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
With little funding, Gul Mohammad Shukhran, Kandahar province’s director of drug control, spends much of his days sitting idle in his office. He says he feels frustrated and let down by the national and international community. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]
Afghanistan''s Billion Dollar Drug War
The illegal poppy industry in Afghanistan provides poor farmers with much needed income. Unemployment stands at close to 40 percent, and many turn to this illegal trade, and as they say in this fragile nation, it guarantees 'cash in their hands'. [Steve Chao / Al Jazeera]