Stories from UNODC Afghanistan

25 June 2009 - Global Decrease in Opium Cultivation due to a Decrease in Afghanistan ‎

poppy farmersThe World Drug Report 2009, launched yesterday by the ‎United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Washington DC, shows that global ‎markets for cocaine, opiates and cannabis are steady or in decline, while production and use of ‎synthetic drugs appears to be increasing in the developing world.‎

The Report noted the decline of global opium poppy cultivation to 189,000 hectares in 2008, ‎largely a result of a decrease in Afghanistan's cultivation area. On a further positive note, ‎UNODC estimates that the number of Afghan involved in opium poppy cultivation decreased by ‎‎28% between 2007 and 2008. Unfortunately, these trends need to be set against the tremendous ‎threat to Afghan stability and development that its drug trade continues to represent. Jean-Luc ‎Lemahieu, UNODC's Representative for Afghanistan, noted that "many more reductions will be ‎required to control the individual, social, economic and political damage of Afghanistan's opium ‎economy".‎ Opium production has exceeded demand in recent years, leading UNODC to assess that hundreds ‎of tons have been stockpiled by farmers and traders in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries. ‎Mr. Lemahieu observed that "stockpiles will allow ongoing, large-scale heroin production ‎regardless of cultivation trends. This is bad news for Afghanistan and neighbouring countries ‎since it is often forgotten than not only demand creates supply, but that also supply generates ‎demand. Among other evils such as criminality and corruption, this stockpiling fuels the ‎dangerous growth in drug demand in Afghanistan".‎

UNODC is conducting a drug abuse survey of Afghanistan in 2009 and it is expected to show a ‎substantial expansion of demand. The increased availability of heroin has changed drug use ‎patterns in Afghanistan and neighboring countries, from traditional opium smoking and oral ‎consumption to drug injection. UNODC has observed that a significant number of Afghanistan's ‎injecting drug users are returnees from neighboring countries; injection compounds the health ‎risks of drug addiction by raising the threat of HIV transmission and a recent outbreak among ‎Afghanistan's heroin addicts illustrates the dangers of this trend.‎ More broadly, the cash and corruption generated by the drug trade undermines good governance, ‎stokes public frustration with the Afghan state and provides a useful source of funding for the ‎insurgency. "The drug trade in Afghanistan cuts across all other development and security issues. ‎The trend is positive, but the window of opportunity limited. Progress must be consolidated fast ‎and its process accelerated if we are to disengage the opium economy as a critical threat," urged ‎Mr. Lemahieu.‎

12 April 2009 - Sub-regional HIV/AIDS Prevention Project

RCC Drug UsersLast week the Afghan Minister of Public Health H.E. Mohammad Amin Fatehmi and the UNODC ‎Representative Jean-Luc Lemahieu launched the sub-regional project for the provision of ‎comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention and care services to Afghan refugee drug users in Iran and ‎Pakistan and returnees in Afghanistan. ‎

The increased availability of heroin has changed drug use patterns in Afghanistan and ‎neighboring countries from traditional opium smoking and oral consumption to drug injection. ‎This creates greater potential for HIV transmission through the sharing of injecting equipment. ‎The high risk of an HIV outbreak among drug users in Afghanistan has been indicated recently at ‎the former Russian Culture Center in Kabul, which has become the biggest provisional drug ‎treatment facility in the country and is mainly inhabited by returnees from Pakistan and Iran. ‎

The sub-regional initiative will establish a collaborative mechanism among the governments of ‎the three countries and will involve close cooperation with the Ministries of Counter Narcotics and ‎Refugees and Repatriation as well as UNHCR, IOM and UNAIDS. It will enable the provision of ‎comprehensive HIV services for Afghan refugees, helping to reduce the individual and social ‎harm of drug use from compounding the trials of migration.‎

 

‎1 April 2009 - Precursor Control and the Costs of Heroin Processing

Lab

Last week, the Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) seized 210 liters of acetic ‎anhydride, a key chemical precursor in heroin manufacturing. The UNODC supported forensic ‎laboratory of the CNPA has confirmed the confiscated chemicals as acetic anhydride. Based on ‎initial investigation, it appears that it was diverted from a licit source in France, before being ‎placed on board a flight from Delhi to Kabul. The Precursor Control Unit of the CNPA, recently ‎created with the support of UNODC, is conducting the ongoing investigation into the final ‎destination of the seizure. ‎

The cost of acetic anhydride has risen in recent years and UNODC currently monitors a price that ‎generally ranges between USD 300 - 400 per liter in Afghanistan. At this price, acetic anhydride ‎accounts for a significant proportion of heroin processing costs.‎

UNODC estimates that approximately two thirds of Afghan's opium production is converted into ‎heroin within the country. Seizures of acetic anhydride rose in 2008, but at 14,000 liters they ‎remain a small proportion of the estimated volume that enters Afghanistan. Moreover, most ‎seizures have been random, rather than led by intelligence. ‎

Operation TARCET, facilitated by UNODC in 2008, led to the seizure of approximately 50 tons of ‎precursor chemicals, mainly in Iran and Pakistan. UNODC is now facilitating preparations for ‎Operation TARCET 2009, with an ambition for more effective cross-border cooperation and ‎intelligence-led seizures, including to enable backtracking investigations. ‎

30 March 2009 - Alternative Livel‎ihoods for Afghan Farmers

Wheat

At his first speech on the U.S. Strategy for Afghanistan last Friday, U.S. President Obama ‎unveiled a new direction for counter narcotics efforts in Afghanistan.

This new approach has also ‎been indicated recently by his Special Envoy, Richard Holbrooke, aiming at a "significant ‎expansion of agricultural sector job creation programmes" in the fight against the Afghan drug ‎trade. ‎

UNODC predicts a decline in opium cultivation in 2009. However, this is to a great extent a ‎response to market forces, namely over-production and a sliding price for opium, rather than a ‎concerted turn by farmers to alternative livelihoods. Currently, 18 of 34 Afghan provinces are ‎opium poppy free and another seven are within reach. In order to sustain these gains beyond the ‎‎2009 harvest, targeted support towards Afghan farmers, their families and communities is ‎required. ‎

In partnership with the Government of Afghanistan, UN agencies and other stakeholders, UNODC ‎strongly supports a holistic approach of counter narcotics in Afghanistan, including agricultural ‎development. ‎

UNODC has assessed livelihood strategies in several Afghan provinces and identified the ‎immediate needs of farmers formerly engaged in or at risk of re-engaging in opium cultivation. ‎Examples have included Badakshan and Balkh. As a result of those assessments, these and other ‎provinces received funding for short-term and high impact assistance. In particular, labour-‎intensive activities were designed to provide paid employment opportunities to households before ‎comprehensive alternative livelihood programmes come into force. ‎

13 March 2009 - Emergency Situation of Drug Users at the former Russian Culture Centre

Afghanistan is the world's opium capital and we estimate that in recent years it has produced ‎more opium than is consumed worldwide. Hundreds of tons have been stockpiled by traders and ‎farmers in the country, which raises the risk of an increased availability of cheap opium and ‎heroin on domestic markets.

RCC drug users

There is already a worrying prevalence of heroin and opium abuse in Afghanistan; we estimate ‎there are 25,000 - 30,000 opium addicts and 15,000 - 20,000 heroin addicts in Kabul alone. The ‎former Russian Cultural Centre (RCC) in Kabul is home to a population of at least 600 of these ‎drug addicts, with a further 600 - 800 drug users visiting during the day. Living conditions at the ‎heavily damaged centre are extremely unhygienic and until recently 2 - 4 people died there on a ‎daily basis, mostly from exposure, malnutrition and medical problems related to living conditions. ‎

The majority of drug users are returning refugees and deportees from camps in neighboring ‎countries, and their families are typically still in the refugee camps or in provinces outside Kabul. ‎Many of the residents are injecting drug users and there is concern about the spread of HIV and ‎other blood-borne diseases through the RCC's population and to Afghans beyond. ‎

Together with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and the Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN), ‎the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and UNODC have initiated a joint ‎UN response to tackle the emergency situation in the RCC, with distribution of food, syringes, ‎provision of health services, detoxification and reintegration assistance. For the 600 RCC ‎residents the joint response has been a success. Unfortunately, it is only a miniature intervention ‎that urgently needs upscaling, meanwhile introducing new and human concepts towards drug ‎addiction and HIV/AIDS.‎

12 March 2009 - Blue Heart Campaign Against Human Trafficking‎

Blue Heart Campaign

Human trafficking is a crime that strips people of their rights, ruins their dreams and robs them ‎of their dignity. Millions of victims are entrapped and exploited every year in this modern form ‎of slavery. It is a global problem and no country is immune. To rally world public opinion ‎against human trafficking, on 5 March UNODC launched the Blue Heart Campaign at the ‎Women's World Awards in Vienna. ‎

UNODC's Country Office for Afghanistan supports the Blue Heart Campaign to raise awareness ‎in Afghanistan and the region. The people of Afghanistan are extremely vulnerable to this ‎crime, arising from poverty and conflict. Afghan women, children and men are trafficked for ‎commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, marriage, enslavement for begging, recruitment ‎into militant groups and abduction for extremist religious indoctrination. ‎
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Destinations are both internal and external. Afghan women and girls in particular are forced ‎into servitude in Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf. In turn, Afghanistan receives victims from Iran, ‎Tajikistan and China. The implications are wide ranged, up to cases in which coercion and ‎deception apparently played a role in preparing suicide bombers brought from Pakistan.‎

8 March 2009 - First Methamphetamine Seizure in Afghanistan

For the first time, UNODC and the Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) have ‎confirmed a seizure of methamphetamine in Afghanistan. ‎

The seizure of four 1 g bags of high-purity methamphetamine took place on 31 January 2009 in ‎Helmand province. In the past, reports of methamphetamine seizures in the field and in the ‎border areas of neighboring countries have proven to be false, either inaccurately reported in ‎press articles or inaccurately labeled at the time of seizure. In this case, officers initially believed ‎the drugs to be heroin. Following examination at the CNPA laboratory supported by UNODC, ‎however, CNPA technicians produced a clear confirmation of methamphetamine. ‎

Four grams is a small amount of methamphetamine, yielding around 150 doses if smoked or ‎injected. Nevertheless, with this first seizure Afghanistan has crossed a worrying threshold. The ‎manifold challenges of the opium economy have placed a heavy burden on Afghanistan and the ‎rise of methamphetamine consumption/production would be an unwelcome addition. ‎

The history of the Golden Triangle demonstrates that methamphetamine production can have ‎significant impacts on an opium economy, rapidly transforming a plant-based narcotics challenge ‎into a challenge of tracking large synthetic laboratories. Many countries around the world have ‎reacted too late to the development of methamphetamine markets and now face the increased ‎costs of curing rather than preventing the negative health and social consequences. ‎

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