ISLAMABAD: The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has said the increase in methamphetamine production in Afghanistan posed serious challenges for neighbouring and regional countries.

The manufacturing of methamphetamine seems to have increased in Afghanistan, as evidenced by more seizures in neighbouring countries of Central Asia, South-West Asia and Turkiye, according to the INCB Annual Report for 2024 released this week.

In Pakistan, 11.4 tonnes of the drug was seized in 2023, up by 156pc from 4.4 tonnes in 2022.

The amount of crystal methamphetamine seized surged from 86.7kg in 2022 to 589.1kg in 2023, an increase of 580pc.

Iran seized 37.2 tonnes of methamphetamine in 2023, compared with 30.4 tonnes in 2022, a 22 per cent increase.

INCB report says drug seizures in Pakistan increased in recent years

Turkiye has also reported a considerable increase in seizures of methamphetamine.

A record 21.9 tonnes was seized in the country in 2023, representing a 35.5pc increase compared to 16.2 tonnes seized in 2022.

Methamphetamine trafficked to Turkiye may be linked to the ongoing smuggling of the substance into the country from or through Iran, possibly from Afghanistan.

In West Asia, the highest quantity of cannabis resin was seized in Pakistan in 2021 and 2022, followed by Iran, Afghanistan, Turkiye and Lebanon.

Cannabis resin originating from Afghanistan is trafficked mainly through Central Asia to destination markets within the sub-region and in Russia.

Cannabis resin produced in Lebanon is trafficked to countries in the Middle East and Europe.

South-West Asia accounted for 27pc of global seizures of cannabis resin from 2018 to 2022, remaining one of the sub-regions with the highest levels of production and trafficking of the substance, the INCB report said.

The report said the drug ban announced in April 2022 by the interim Afghanistan government does not appear to have impacted the manufacturing or trafficking of methamphetamine.

Methamphetamine seizures in neighbouring countries up to the end of 2023 did not indicate a slowdown in trafficking, it added.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has estimated that of the 60 million people worldwide who used opioids in 2022, half were in South and South-West Asia.

The Middle East and South-West Asia remained the sub-regions with the highest prevalence of opioid misuse in the world in 2022.

Opiates, in particular opium and heroin, remained the main drugs of concern in South-West Asia, while the non-medical use of tramadol in the Middle East continued to pose significant health risks, including acute toxicity (fatal and non-fatal overdoses).

The UNODC has said that although recent estimates of an increase in the use of methamphetamine in Afghanistan were not available, its use, along with that of captagon tablets, has been rising in the Middle East and South-West Asia.

INCB called the rapid spread of illicit synthetic drugs “a deadly problem”, presenting a serious threat to public health.

It called for a comprehensive, coordinated strategy to counter illicit manufacturing, trafficking and consumption, including through private-public partnerships.

The INCB report found that the proliferation of synthetic drugs was fundamentally reshaping illicit drug markets and criminal actors were exploiting regulatory loopholes to generate new synthetic substances.

“With rapidly emerging substances being used to illicitly manufacture synthetic drugs, it is a constantly moving target and criminal actors are staying ahead of regulatory mechanisms and often acting faster than enforcement agencies can keep up with,” said INCB President Jallal Toufiq.

In light of the increase in seizures of methamphetamine and its use in the region, INCB has encouraged governments to invest more in systematic forensic profiling of seized methamphetamine in order to determine the chemicals from which it is manufactured to enable informed regulatory and enforcement action.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2025