CHAGCHARAN (SW): Officials at the Counter Narcotics Department in the Ghor province stated that a survey indicates that drug addiction has dropped to a degree but the overall ratio is still high.
Mohammad Yousof Wakili, the head for Counter Narcotics Department (CND) in Ghor province told Salam Watandar reports suggest that there has been a 20 % decrease in drug addiction in the province but still the overall ratio of addiction is concerning. Wakili noted that poppy cultivation has decreased in the province. He added that according to the previous survey, poppy was cultivated on some 1,700 hectares of land in Ghor province. He said fresh reports read that, in the year 2016, only 1,200 hectares of land have been used for poppy cultivation in the province.
Poppy cultivation has witnessed considerable drop in Ghor province, yet absence of health center for rehabilitation of drug addicts is considered as a major challenge to overcome this issue.
Dr. Mohammad Lalzad, the head for a rehabilitation center in the province, told Salam Watandar that shortages of such health centers is hindering progress in eliminating this menace. He added that women and children constitute 10% of the total 50,000 drug users in the province.
In the year 2014, a survey conducted by the Ministry of Counter Narcotics, the US embassy in Kabul and the Unite Nation Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), suggested that as many as 7,000 people were addicted to drugs in the central province of Ghor, while fresh report suggests that there are some 5,000 drug addicted persons in the province.
Officials at the Counter Narcotics Department in Ghor noted that poverty, insecurity, violence and lack of health care centers for drug addicts are the main reasons behind it.
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