{"id":1294925,"date":"2022-02-13T17:52:32","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T22:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1294925"},"modified":"2022-02-13T17:52:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T22:52:39","slug":"report-kabul-heroin-user-encampment-growing-under-taliban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-kabul-heroin-user-encampment-growing-under-taliban\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Kabul Heroin User Encampment Growing Under Taliban"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freport-kabul-heroin-user-encampment-growing-under-taliban%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1294925&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Heroin-use-grows-under-Taliban-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">The number of people using heroin under Kabul\u2019s notorious Pul-e-Sukhta bridge \u2014 long synonymous with hard drug use \u2014 has increased since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021, people living near the bridge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/heroin-use-in-kabul-grows-under-taliban-say-locals\/av-60734266\">told<\/a> Deutsche Welle (DW) on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLocals say heroin use centered around this infamous Kabul bridge has worsened under the Taliban,\u201d Deutsche Welle (DW) reported on February 10.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIn this place, four or five people die every night under this bridge,\u201d an unidentified man told DW. He referred to the&nbsp;Pul-e-Sukhta bridge, which spans the polluted Kabul River in the Afghan national capital\u2019s western region.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Taliban are against drug use,\u201d DW acknowledged on Thursday. \u201cBut most international NGOs and charities fled Afghanistan under Taliban rule. This makes it harder for drug addicts to get the help they need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afghanistan-analysts.org\/en\/reports\/economy-development-environment\/under-the-bridge-the-drug-addicts-scene-in-kabul\/\">observed<\/a> in August 2014 that the \u201cplight\u201d of Kabul drug addicts \u201cis only marginally mitigated by the assistance that state medical facilities and non-governmental organisation (NGO) programmes offer.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThousands of people become addicted to drugs every year in [Afghanistan] a country that is the world\u2019s major producer of opiates, although many of them developed the habit while living abroad as refugees,\u201d AAN, an independent non-profit, reported at the time.<\/p>\n<p>An AAN journalist who visited&nbsp;Pul-e-Sukhta bridge in 2014 estimated 300 people lived under the structure at the time, noting that drug users lived across multiple settlements \u201cunder Pul-e Sukhta and other nearby bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[A]ccording to some of the men living under the bridge, every month two-to-four of them die,\u201d the organization relayed. \u201cThe number of deaths increases in winter when the addicts do not have sufficiently warm clothes or heating material.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>AAN interviewed Afghan security officials in charge of Kabul\u2019s District Six, which is the area containing Pul-e Sukhta bridge, in August 2014. The officials told AAN drug sellers cut deals with local police and government employees who looked the other way as they supplied Kabul\u2019s hard drug habit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn official who asked not be named said that stopping the supply of drugs in town was nearly impossible, since the suppliers had connections with high-ranking government officials,\u201d AAN reported.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cYou arrest these suppliers, but their connections have them released and in the end you find yourself behind prison gates,\u201d an anonymous Afghan security official said.<\/p>\n<p>It remains unknown if Taliban members have supported similarly corrupt practices at Pul-e-Sukhta bridge since the group seized power in Kabul in August 2021. The Taliban, which is based on Sunni fundamentalism, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2021\/08\/15\/local-media-afghan-government-handing-country-to-taliban\/\">ousted<\/a> Kabul\u2019s U.S.-supported government last summer. The takeover came after Washington backed Kabul, Afghanistan\u2019s seat of government, for nearly two decades following its invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. In a stark reversal of events that transpired last August, the U.S. in the autumn of 2001 ejected the Taliban from Kabul\u2019s government after the group ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.<\/p>\n<p>The Taliban <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2021\/08\/24\/kabul-drug-addicts-demand-taliban-turn-back-on-its-opium-goldmine\/\">indicated<\/a> a desire to curtail hard drug use in Kabul shortly after&nbsp;seizing power in the capital on August 17, 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are assuring our countrymen and women and the international community that Afghanistan will not produce any kind of narcotics,\u201d Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yFhKAOAdaoM&amp;t=2070s\">told<\/a> reporters at a press conference in Kabul.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday when we entered Kabul we saw a large number of our youth who were sitting under the bridges and next to the walls and they were using narcotics,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was so unfortunate. I got saddened to see these young people without any faith in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom now on, Afghanistan will be a narcotics-free country,\u201d the Taliban mouthpiece vowed.<\/p>\n<p>Reports by the Associated Press (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/gallery\/2021\/10\/11\/photos-kabul-afghanistan-taliban-drugs-underworld-heroin\">AP<\/a>) and Agence France-Press (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ndtv.com\/world-news\/under-taliban-kabuls-drug-addicts-forced-into-withdrawal-2581335\">AFP<\/a>) in October 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2021\/10\/26\/taliban-parade-recovered-drug-addicts-trapped-in-jihadist-rehab\/\">revealed<\/a> the Taliban was forcing Kabul drug addicts into rehabilitation centers bereft of basic human rights in an effort to achieve its stated goal of eradicating illicit drug use in Afghanistan. The Western news agencies detailed how Taliban members rounded up drug fiends under Kabul bridges, using violence or threats of violence to arrest the addicts before shipping them off to clinics where they are forced to quit drugs overnight, without traditional methods of assistance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is little methadone available to help wean the opium and heroin addicts, and nothing to remove the withdrawal pains for those being weaned off of meth, doctors say,\u201d AFP reported on October 20, 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The number of people using heroin under Kabul\u2019s notorious Pul-e-Sukhta bridge \u2014 long synonymous with hard drug use \u2014 has increased since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1294925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1294925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1294925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1294925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1294925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}