WASHINGTON, Aug 8: Drug addiction in Afghanistan has doubled during the last two years and nearly a million people are now using illegal drugs, says a UN report. The rise in addiction followed a steady rise in the production of illicit drugs since the collapse of the Taliban government in 2001. The country’s main drug crop is poppy which is processed into opium and then to heroin.

Afghanistan produces an estimated 90 per cent of the world’s illegal opium.

The United Nations and the Afghan government estimate the total export value of Afghanistan’s opium in 2005 was $2.7 billion equivalent to 52 per cent of the country’s official gross domestic product.

The international community has provided millions of dollars for development but Afghanistan’s economy still relies heavily on the trade in illicit drugs.

Initially, Afghans believed that since most of the drug produced in Afghanistan is smuggled out of the country, it’s not going to create a major addiction problem. They were proven wrong.

Before smuggling their goods out, drug smugglers sell a certain portion in the domestic market. This is known as loadshedding, which allows the smugglers to recover their costs and make some profit before sending their goods to the international market. This ensures that the smugglers lose no money even if the drug is confiscated.

This is how drug producing areas also become major consumers of the drug they produce. In today’s Afghanistan, Helmand is the country’s largest opium-producing province. The province also has seen a steady increase in addiction.

The UN survey determined that about 200,000 of an estimated one million drug addicts in Afghanistan are regular abusers. Almost all of them are hard-core opium and heroin addicts.

The report also quotes counter-narcotics officials in Kabul as saying that the number of drug addicts is increasing but they do not have the resources to deal with the situation.