Dozens of drug addicts regularly arrive in the vast rehabilitation center located outside Kabul, in the air, descended from police cars, victims of an epidemic of addiction to methamphetamines, which now compete with opiates in Afghanistan.
Arrested in the streets of the capital, they are subjected to a compulsory drug addiction program, supposed to contain the growing demand for methamphetamines, which took the authorities by surprise in a country grappling with the scourges of opium and heroin.
"I would do anything to get a dose"
"My life has been shattered by drug addiction," says 25-year-old Sulaiman, who recently arrived with around 40 men. "I would do anything to get a dose, from work to flight," he adds.
Patients in Ibn Sina, the largest detoxification center in Afghanistan, undergo a 45-day course of treatment. Sulaiman became addicted to meth three years ago during a stay in Iran.
Until 2017, the center mainly dealt with opiate addicts, says its doctor and chief counselor, Abdul Jabar Jalili. "Today, around 70% of patients are addicted to meth". And their chances of coping are low, with more than 80% relapse.
Three million addicts
According to the latest available data, in 2015 Afghanistan had three million drug addicts for an estimated population of 37 million. Experts estimate that the number has increased since then, and health officials say the share of those using meth could be 40%.
It is a revolution for a substance that was almost unused a few years ago. In this country, which produces around 90% of the world's opium, the first seizure of meth, weighing a few grams, occurred in the southern province of Helmand in 2008. Last year, the authorities confiscated 180 kilos. And 935 in the first ten months of 2019, according to Kabir Ibrahimkhail, an officer in the fight against drugs. "At this rate, it will not be a surprise if it soon replaces opium in Afghanistan" for consumption, he said.
Local production was meager before 2015, most of it coming from Iran, where pseudoephedrine, a classic ingredient in cold medicine, is used as the basic ingredient for its production. But the traffickers discovered that they could use a mountain herb, known in western and southern Afghanistan as "Oman".
According to the UN mission in Afghanistan, the Taliban, who have long used opium as a source of funding, have entered the methamphetamine market.
With AFP
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