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Opium-Addicted Children: Paying a Heavy Price for the Afghan War
The revelation that the number of opium-addicted Afghan children has reached new highs is a sad unintended consequence of that war. It dramatically illustrates how adult war games can doom generations of children to a miserable life, argues César Chelala. Worse, it is a growing problem in neighboring Iran and Pakistan as well.
A group of researchers hired by the U.S. Department of State found staggering levels of opium in Afghan children, some as young as 14 months old, who had been passively exposed by adult drug users in their homes.
Saliha, a 4-year-old opium addict, sits on a hospital bed in Afghanistan's northern Balkh province May 26, 2008 with his sister Hamida, 10, and their addicted mother Malika, 35.(Photo/Rosie DiManno/Toronto Star) In 25% of homes where adult addicts lived, children tested showed signs of significant drug exposure, according to the researchers.
According to one of the researchers, the children exhibit the typical behavior of opium and heroin addicts. If the drug is withdrawn, they go through a withdrawal process.
The results of the study should sound an alarm. Not only were opium products found in indoor air samples, but their concentrations were also extremely high. This suggests that, as with second-hand cigarette smoke, contaminated indoor air and surfaces pose a serious health risk to women's and children's health.
The extent of health problems in children as a result of such exposure is not known. What is known is that the number of Afghan drug users has increased from 920,000 in 2005 to over 1.5 million, according to Zalmai Afzali, the spokesman for the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics (MCN) in Afghanistan.
A quarter of those users are thought to be women and children. Afzali stated that Afghanistan could become the world's top drug-using nation per capita if current trends continue.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), no other country in the world produces as much heroin, opium and hashish as Afghanistan - a sad distinction for a country already ravaged by war.
This may explain why control efforts so far have been concentrated on poppy eradication and interdiction to stem exports, while less attention was paid to the rising domestic addiction problem, particularly in children.
Both American and Afghan counter narcotic officials have said that such widespread domestic drug addiction is a relatively new problem. Among the factors leading to increased levels of drug use is the high unemployment rate throughout the country, the social upheaval provoked by this war and those that preceded it, as well as the return of refugees from Iran and Pakistan who became addicts while abroad.
In both those countries, the high number of opium-addicted children is also a serious problem, particularly among street children. In Tehran, although the government has opened several shelters for street children, many more centers are still needed to take care of them.
According to some estimates, there are between 35,000 and 50,000 children in Tehran who are forced by their parents or other adults to live and beg in the streets or to work in sweatshops.
These children are subject to all kinds of abuse, and many among them end up in organized prostitution rings and become part of the sex trade. They are transported to other countries where they are obliged to work as prostitutes, while others simply disappear.
The situation is equally serious in Pakistan, where in Karachi alone there are tens of thousands of children who are addicted, as drug trafficking prevails all over the city. In Karachi, the main addiction is to hashish.
According to Rana Asif Habib, president of the Initiator Human Development Foundation (IHDF), due to the increase in the number of street children, the street crime rate is also on the rise as children get involved in drug trafficking activities in the city.
Injecting drug users face the additional risk of HIV-infection through the sharing of contaminated syringes. "Drug addiction and HIV/AIDS are, together, Afghanistan's silent tsunami," declared Tariq Suliman, director of the Nejat's rehabilitation center to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs.
There are about 40 treatment centers for addicts dispersed throughout the country, but most are small, poorly staffed and under-resourced.
For the first time ever, an international team including World Health Organization (WHO) officials and experts from Johns Hopkins University and the Medical University of Vienna have joined efforts to design a treatment regime for young children.
The United States and its allies have the resources to rapidly expand and adequately fund and resource such treatment and rehabilitation centers throughout the country. Anything less will be yet another serious indictment of an occupation gone astray.
34 Comments so far
Show All"The United States and its allies have the resources to rapidly expand and adequately fund and resource such treatment and rehabilitation centers throughout the country."
The US doesn't treat drug offenders. Unless by that you mean, stripping them of their rights, property, and liberty.
We have a much more enlightened philosophy here in the US. Hard time in the slam for druggies. Don't expect any more sympathy than that from your American occupiers. Certainly you can't expect any more compassion in drug policies than the US citizenry have been suffering under for the last generation. Drug or any kind of treatment centers funded by the US in other countries for the benefit of the poor? What are you on?
Of course, the author may have meant the economic resources, not the sense.
Kudos to The Globalist for pointing out this abomination; however --
To say there anything new to US strategists about elevated drug trafficking during violent occupation is a bit like advising Goldman Sachs that deregulating investment might possibly lead to corruption.
I mean, do we believe that all the King's horses and all the King's think-tanks cannot draw a line between drugs leaving the Golden Triangle during the occupation of Vietnam, drugs funding Ollie North and RReagan's arson and murder in Nicaragua in the 1980's, the last 30 years or so of Colombian history, and Afghan appointee Karzai's brother running most of the world's opium trade?
The experience of Joseph Heller was in the European theater of WWII, but his creation of Milo Minderbinder in CATCH 22 sure suggests that such things were not new in Vietnam.
Is it not more likely that this is figured into someone's cost-benefit analysis, and that establishing presence after the invasion involves, in part, searching for people to run the concessions?
Worried about childhood drug use? I imagine a label on each fragment of the dragontooth bombs littered over fields in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Iraq, Afghanistan, and probably Pakistan: "Please Maim Responsibly."
bardamu:
"Worried about childhood drug use? I imagine a label on each fragment of the dragontooth bombs littered over fields in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Iraq, Afghanistan, and probably Pakistan: "Please Maim Responsibly"
Your point is Right on key there bardamu...This unspeakable act of "land mines" littering war ravaged lands for decades to come is flat out evil beyond description by words..The USA is but one of few countrys who refuse to ban these instrments of horror..
Whoever makes these insidious devices and deploys them should face the death penalty for the horror they cause to innocent people...
This country, since the white man "settled in" has never experienced or fallen victim to this sick, perverted psycho war/murder shit and as A result we have no memory or empathy for A world full of people victimized by our treachurous psycho war monger machine...
This article seems to draw an equivalence between physical addiction to opium products, and chronic use of hashish, a marijuana product that has not been shown to cause any sort of physical addiction, dependency, or withdrawal symptoms. No such equivalence exists, and attempting to draw one cheapens the plight of children with a debilitating physical dependency on opium.
I'm all for legalization of marijuana, etc., etc., but WOW, this is SO not the time to parse the drug wars.
When it comes to the depraved--and inevitable--drug use going on among a desperate people, most especially its children, your protestations are ridiculous.
You want to smoke, fine. But citing the 'harmlessness' of the drug in this context is disgusting.
Actually, hashish and cannabis can help addicts overcome their addiction to opiates. There are not morally or medically equivalent. It's an important distinction.
http://blogs.alternet.org/doctork/2010/06/26/a-potential-role-for-cannabis-in-addiction-treatment/
Cannabis is habituating, like cheesecake. Some self control is necessary. But, it does not cause debilitating clinical withdrawal symptoms, such as projectile vomiting, fever, and other life-threatening symptoms.
The active ingredients in cannabis have also been shown to be a potential treatment for cancerous tumors, among many other serious medical conditions, such as glaucoma. This is mainstream medicine, not wacko stuff. Even Fox News acknowledges the healing potential of this plant:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312132,00.html
We're well past the "Refer Madness" period, imposed by the Hearst corporation, cotton industry, and others. I hope this research helps to open your eyes a bit. I think a paradigm shift is in order.
You missed my point. I'm all for marijuana use and believe in it's medical effectiveness (indeed, 30 years ago, the marijuana I gave my father was the only thing that eased his pain from cancer).
In talking about the ravages of Afghanistan, however, this is the wrong forum to defend marijuana. Doesn't sound like too many Afghanis kick their heels back after a hard day's work and imbibe as a matter of choice. In Afghanistan, drug use is the result of a desperate, war-ravaged nation--and I find it disgusting to defend anything about it, no matter the drug.
Let's keep the focus on the awful results of the warring horror we continue to visit upon Afghanistan
Why slam hashish though? It's like slamming cheesecake.
It's completely besides the point, which is physical addiction.
If you want to help the Afghan people, no need to take away
their strong coffee, cheesecake, hashish, or any other of life's
simple pleasures.
O Cannabis Sativa
whose name means "useful plant"
may your resinous buds
grow in abundance --
may you receive the respect that you deserve --
and may your genetic diversity
continue to improve
over many generations --
preventing extinction,
and increasing yields,
smoothness, flavor,
and cannabinoid content
for everyone
"In talking about the ravages of Afghanistan, however, this is the wrong forum to defend marijuana."
Of course this is true. But it's also the wrong time to demonstrate that you don't know the difference between opium and hash, which the author seems to have done. It puts the credibility of the entire article into question.
from the article:
~ The situation is equally serious in Pakistan, where in Karachi alone there are tens of thousands of children who are addicted, as drug trafficking prevails all over the city. In Karachi, the main addiction is to hashish. ~
perhaps the poster's reference was to this pair of sentences...the first sentence implies children in Pakistan are addicted in the same way as those in Afghanistan, which, based on the previous paragraphs, would naturally suggest opium use...the second sentence clarifies that is not the case, acknowledging hashish addiction, yet allowing the 'congruency of addiction' claim to stand, despite this sudden shifting in vitally important criteria, which the poster rightly questions...
in other words, the two sentences appear to make opium addiction in Afghanistan the equivalent of hashish addiction in Pakistan...
the point was that, while opium is addicting, hashish has not been shown to be, certainly not in the same way, or degree, which negates the logic behind these sentences...
to compare the two substances, opium and marijuana, and declare them the same, whether in chemical nature, effect, or addictiveness, is not truth...is deceptive...
the united states is behind this huge opium trade, of course...
There are different kinds hashish. Some kinds contain opium and some do not.
As the article states: In Karachi, the main addiction is to hashish.
Hashish is not addictive. If hashish is laced with opium, then the person is addicted to opium, not hashish. Gee, putting coca in Coca-Cola can make one addicted to coca, but not cola...
Good point, Ardent.
The article suggests that a white man's burden exists involving drug counseling and detox for kids. Meanwhile, while the oil companies continue to plot alternative pipeline routes...
+1. Well said.
I once read that Mao Tse-tung, while bringing about his particular brand of "Change" would have his troops raid Opium Dens, tattoo the foreheads of all users and the next time they were caught imbibing they would be promptly executed with A bullet to the head...
I now wonder just how many of these people got started with their parents or families second hand smoke..
In the vast majority of cases they have the Brits to thank with the wholesale forced addiction of the Chinese by the Crowns extortion of these people and the resultant Opium Wars..
That Royal Family sure has alot to be proud of..I hope some outspoken New Yorker throws this in the face of the glorious Queen when she visits the Big Apple this week...It seems that this Royal family is perpetually, in one way or another is inescapably connected to drugs, drug addiction and drug profiteering from time memorial..Oh well, any thing to make A Buck or is it A "Euro" these days...They have so much to be proud of...
First Afghans love their hash and opium.
Second the Taliban almost eliminated poppy production in copperation with the UN and USA.
Then the USA invaded and along with the CIA, one of the worlds largest drug cartels, heroin production sky rocketed.
The precoursors for herion come up the Kyber pass in tandem with USA military convoys.
A Camel (3,000 poisons) is much worse than opium.
But if you smoke opium all day you will become jaundice and eventually die, but you will feel no pain.
If you smoke hashish all day in Afghanistan in their hookahs with charcoal under the hash you will get a sore throat and the much cooler opium would be a pleasant alternative.
Many Afghans drop a ball of opium in their morning tea.
Heroin is the overpowering addiction and most of the heroin production is USA controled.
this is what happens when the great superpower gets so scared they bomb the pitiful poor, hungry people of Afghanistan to death, then occupy the country for nine long years presenting as their only feeble excuse that somehow these raggedy shepherds and villaers and women and children caused some Saudis to fly u.s. passenger planes into the towers.
the longer it goes on the more stories we will get about "unforeseen consequences".
no politician and no general in the u.s. has a clue about Afghanistan.
They still have not even figured out that no cluster bombs or unmanned drones shooting missiles, and no "strategy" either is going to get them out.
they need to just go. now.
Yes but Afghanisham is big money for all those you just cited as well as those who reap the rewards on the record crops of that nasty stuff that addicts people. Is it any surprise that Iran has quite a heroine problem right now as well as here in the U.S.A. Not talked about much by the mainstream media...surprise surprise!
I once thought the U.S. had a strategic need to be there but now I think the real purposes are sinister$$$$interests.
Eyes wide shut.
The New York Times reported in early 2001 that the Taliban had pretty much eradicated opium production in Afghanistan and that in time heroin addicts in the US and the rest of the world would face the crunch.
How is it that even with our occupation we can't achieve what the Taliban could?
Sure does seem that the powers that be don't really care about halting opium production in the least.
A good read on the subject,
Alan Ginsberg...
CIA DOPE CALYPSO
"The United States and its allies have the resources to rapidly expand and adequately fund and resource such treatment and rehabilitation centers throughout the country."
Asking the USA to fund social programs is like asking a pimp or a pusher to do the same. They are not in business to fund social programs. They are in business to fund their own private/selfish agendas.
When the Afghan Girl of the 1985 National Geographic magazine was found 17 years later she was asked if she ever felt safe. Sharbat Gula replied: "No. But life under the Taliban was better. At least there was peace and order."
Do we as Americans have any idea of what it is like for the women and children suffering the horror of wars and occupations, poverty and disease for years without end?
The misery of children having to work the streets for their family or being sold in sex slavery. What the hell are we doing there supporting a corrupt government and perpetuating their power to oppress and neglect the needs of the people. We learned that we do not know the number of civilian deaths that have resulted from our invasion of Afghanistan. Does any-one know how many children are orphans? End the war!
You are the first person I have ever heard of, other than myself, who is aware of this fact.
What is the Globalist?
Trust not a word of this article. It panders to the ignorant.
"A group of researchers hired by the U.S. Department of State..."
Now there would be an objective group, eh.
-30-
I would suppose many children are being given opium to help them cope with the horrors of war.
Commercial Cigaretts are hundreds of times more harmful than opium.
War is not healthy
for children
and other
living
things
.
"The revelation that the number of opium-addicted Afghan children has reached new highs is a sad unintended consequence of that war."
Sad, yes. Unintended, no.
The US knows full well that drug addiction makes people more complacent and less resistent, easy to manipulate. They knew it back in the early 1800's when they started selling opium in China. They knew it during the MK-Ultra project when they illegally gave US citizens LSD. They used the heroin trade in an attempt to stifle black radicals in this country.
Does anyone honestly believe the CIA isn't actively promoting the drug trade in Afghanistan?
And the kicker is, they're doing it with us, too. Get the people the f--- out of the way so we can get on with our policy of genocide for profit. The threat of prison is nowhere near the deterrent from crime and activism that the distractions of shopping malls, television, beer, and--weeee!--the loud noises and pretty lights of July 4th celebrations are. Pretty goddamn pathetic that Americans can be bribed with colored lights.
Did you really think it was a coincidence that activism was more successful back during the Vietnam war? They only had 3 channels back then. Not to mention the Internet. Facebook may be a joke and a waste of time, but CommonDreams, because it's audience consists of potential activists, is a much more effective distraction.
It's the same thing that happened to the Brits in the 19th century. Poverty was so wide-spread in the wake of the industrial revolution that mothers gave gin and or laudenum to their children to keep them quiet because milk was so expensive and so rare in what amounted then to the 'inner-city'.