Afghanistan is the fastest-growing maker of methamphetamine, UN drug agency says

Annual meth seizure totals from inside the country rose from less than 100kg (220 pounds) in 2019 to nearly 2,700kg (6,000 pounds) in 2021, suggesting increased production, the report said. But it could not give a value for the country’s meth supply, the quantities being produced, nor its domestic usage, because it does not have the data.

Angela Me, the chief of the UNODC’s Research and Trend Analysis Branch, told Associated Press that making meth, especially in Afghanistan, had several advantages over heroin or cocaine production.

Me said it was too early to assess what impact the Taliban’s drug crackdown has had on meth supplies.

Afghanistan’s Taliban sign mining contracts worth US$6.5 billion

Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said the Taliban-run government has prohibited the cultivation, production, sale and use of all intoxicants and narcotics in Afghanistan.

He said authorities have destroyed 644 factories and around 12,000 acres of land where prohibited narcotics were cultivated, processed or produced. There have been more than 5,000 raids in which 6,000 people have been arrested.

“We cannot claim 100 per cent that it is finished because people can still do these activities in secret. It is not possible to bring it to zero in such a short time,” said Qani. “But we have a four-year strategic plan that narcotics in general and meth in particular will be finished.”

A UN report published in November said that opium cultivation since the Taliban takeover increased by 32 per cent over the previous year, and that opium prices rose following authorities’ announcement of a cultivation ban in April 2022. Farmers’ income from opium sales tripled from US$425 million in 2021 to US$1.4 billion in 2022.

The 2022 report also said the illicit drug market thrived as Afghanistan’s economy sharply contracted, making people open to illegal cultivation and trafficking for their survival.

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World Food Programme cuts rations to Afghanistan as millions close to famine

World Food Programme cuts rations to Afghanistan as millions close to famine

Afghans are dealing with drought, severe economic hardship and the continued consequences of decades of war and natural disasters.

The downturn, along with the halt of international financing that propped up the economy of the former Western-backed government, is driving people into poverty, hunger, and addiction.

An Afghan health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said around 20,000 people are in hospitals for drug addiction, mostly to crystal meth. Of these patients, 350 are women. He said children are also being treated, but did not give the number nor their ages.