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report released on Sunday, methamphetamine trafficking in and around Afghanistan has significantly increased in recent years despite the Taliban
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’s claims to curb heroin trafficking.
"The surge in methamphetamine trafficking in Afghanistan and the region suggests a significant shift in the illicit drug market and demands our immediate attention," Ghada Waly, the executive director of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said.
Despite the Taliba’s ban on poppy cultivation and narcotics production in April of the previous year, the UNODC reported that methamphetamine trafficking has notably intensified since the ban, highlighting an ongoing challenge.
Methamphetamine seizures in Afghanistan and neighbouring regions increased 12 times between 2016 and 2021. Furthermore, from 2019 to 2022, countries like Iran
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and Pakistain observed a notable uptick in methamphetamine seizures, hinting at a regional issue.
Astonishingly, methamphetamine suspected to have originated in Afghanistan has been seized in far-flung places like La Belle France and Australia, underscoring the global reach of this illicit trade.
According to UNODC, suspicious methamphetamine production in Afghanistan primarily centres around a plant known as "ephedra," which has experienced rapid growth and contains ephedrine used in drug manufacturing.
Ephedra is a self-growing plant readily available in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime emphasizes that common cold medicines and industrial chemicals are more efficient and cost-effective for producing methamphetamine, making them a more significant threat.
Meanwhile,
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earlier this year, the Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, issued a decree prohibiting the cultivation, production, use, and trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic substances.
| Shafaq News adds: |
Angela Me, the chief of the UNODC’s Research and Trend Analysis Branch, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that making meth, especially in Afghanistan, had several advantages over heroin or cocaine production.
"You don’t need to wait for something to grow," said Me. "You don’t need land. You just need the cooks and the know-how. Meth labs are mobile, they’re hidden. Afghanistan also has the ephedra plant, which is not found in the biggest meth-producing countries: Myanmar and Mexico. It’s legal in Afghanistan and it grows everywhere. But you need a lot of it."
Me said it was too early to assess what impact the Taliban
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A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, Abdul Mateen Qani, told the AP that the Taliban-run government has prohibited the cultivation, production, sale and use of all intoxicants and narcotics in Afghanistan.
He said authorities have destroyed 644 factories and around 12,000 acres of land where prohibited narcotics were cultivated, processed or produced. There have been more than 5,000 raids in which 6,000 people have been arrested.
"We cannot claim 100% that it is finished because people can still do these activities in secret. It is not possible to bring it to zero in such a short time," said Qani. "But we have a four-year strategic plan that narcotics in general and meth in particular will be finished."
A U.N. report published in November said that opium cultivation since the Taliban takeover increased by 32% over the previous year, and that opium prices rose following authorities’ announcement of a cultivation ban in April 2022. Farmers’ income from opium sales tripled from $425 million in 2021 to $1.4 billion in 2022.
The 2022 report also said that the illicit drug market thrived as Afghanistan’s economy sharply contracted, making people open to illegal cultivation and trafficking for their survival.
Afghans are dealing with drought, severe economic hardship and the continued consequences of decades of war and natural disasters.
The downturn, along with the halt of international financing that propped up the economy of the former Western-backed government, is driving people into poverty, hunger, and addiction.
An Afghan health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said around 20,000 people are in hospitals for drug addiction, mostly to crystal meth. Of these patients, 350 are women. He said children are also being treated, but did not give the number nor their ages.