World-News

Christian Science Monitor

03/13/08

Muhammad Nasir lives with 70 drug users on the outskirts of town. His home is an abandoned building sitting amid a mass of toppled concrete. This field of rubble is one of the most dangerous, least visited parts of Kabul -– police say two people were killed here just weeks ago. Inside what used to be a Russian cinema house, Mr. Nasir and others sleep in flour sacks and smoke. ‘I use a gram of opium a day. I don’t have the money to get new clothes so that I can get a job,’ says Nasir, pointing to his filthy tunic and torn sandals. Afghanistan’s notorious, soaring drug trade is hitting home. The country now has one of the world’s sharpest rising rates of drug use, especially in the cities. With few antidrug programs –- and many of those poorly funded –- aid agencies say drug abuse is now the fastest-growing social problem in the country...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0313/p04s01-wogn.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=opium