Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Afghanistan's Growing Heroin Addiction Epidemic

People observed from the Pul-i-Sokhta bridge in Kabul as men used heroin below. Afghanistan has one of the world’s highest rates of opiate use. Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times

Kabul Residents Watch As Heroin Addiction Grows -- New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — Each afternoon, spectators line a bridge in west Kabul and gaze down. They have not come to stare at the Kabul River — a dismal trickle of muddy runoff this time of year — but at the figures huddled on its garbage-strewn banks.

Some of the men below rock back and forth, or crawl on all fours. Others sit perfectly still, with blankets over their heads, shielding lit matches from the wind and their gaunt faces from the men on the bridge above.

This is where Kabul’s surging numbers of heroin addicts gather to smoke, inject and occasionally die — usually with an intently staring audience. Some look on in judgment, others with pity.

Read more ....

My Comment: This heroin addiction epidemic is going to kill more people and destroy more lives than 13 years of war against the Taliban.

3 comments:

Jay Farquharson said...

Not just in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, all the way along the Silk Road from China to Northern Europe, then across the Sea to North America.

Vietnam all over again, only on steroids.

War News Updates Editor said...

It is a huge problem in Russia Jay. It's addiction rate is almost equals to Afghanistan's.

James said...

Ah, the brown witch is back to her spells.