Feature: Millions turn to drugs to numb the pain of hopelessness of life in Afghanistan

Having left his family behind in Iran Faramarz returned to his homeland to find a job and to rebuild a life for both him and his family, but the unsettled security situation, woeful employment scene and the harsh reality of life alone in Afghanistan, saw the young man plunged into a life of drugs and addiction.

Along with half a dozen other drug addicts in Karta-e-Now, a neighborhood on the eastern edge of Kabul city, Faramarz, a frequent user of heroin, murmured sorrowfully that living thousands of miles away from his family and his constant failure to find a job, had seen him fall hopelessly into the city's drug culture, which is ever-prevalent on the outskirts of the capital.

"I used to live with my family in Iran for more than 20 years but separated from them 2 years ago to come back to my homeland with the hope of finding a job and bringing my family back to their home country, but all in vain," lamented the dejected man.

Faramarz, in his thirties, said that he is a graduate of high school and is a qualified mason, but for all his efforts, could not find a job.

"I have knocked on all the doors and have left no stone unturned here in my country over the past two years, but it's all been futile," Faramarz deplored.

"The continued failure to achieve my goals has forced me to take refuge among drug addicts and I have finally also succumb to using heroin to try and numb my pain," the young addict told Xinhua recently.

Like Faramarz, countless more youth, adults and even teenagers can be seen almost elsewhere in the capital city of Kabul and other parts of the poppy-growing country, using abandoned houses in slum areas and even drainage canals as their squats.

Zalmai, about twice the age of Faramarz, insisted that taking heroin is the only option to "kill your pain" in the war-plagued and "sick Afghanistan".

Wearing shabby clothes and saying that he became isolated from his family several years ago, Zalmai claimed that he used to serve as a major in the Afghan army until 1986 but that the continued war and increasing problems have devoured his life, leading him to a life of drugs with the city's other addicts.

"No one wants to live like an animal outside, but incredible poverty, enormous difficulties, social injustice and cruelty in society have conspired to throw me away in a land of addicts," the elderly, drug-addled man deplored.

Zalmai, while talking of his own struggles with the drug, implores the young boys in the squat to "give up inhaling the poison (heroin)" and tells them to return to their homes or go to hospital for rehabilitation.

"It is the responsibility of the government to take us to health centers and after recovery they should provide job opportunities for us to serve ourselves and our country," Zalmai said, complaining that "no one comes to rescue the addicts here."

"Opium production in Afghanistan rose by 43 percent to 4,800 tons in 2016 compared to 3,300 tons harvested in 2015. Meanwhile, the area under opium poppy cultivation also increased to 201,000 hectares in 2016, a rise of 10 percent compared with 183,000 hectares in 2015, according to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released here recently.

The number of drug addicts, parallel to an increase in opiate-based products made in the region is also on a constant rise and presently, according to official figures, some 1.9 million to 2.4 million adult drug addicts are currently living in Afghanistan.

While complaining about the government's attitude towards drug addicts, another young addict, Azim, claimed that, "drug smugglers in connivance with some police personnel supply the killer drug to us, even here in the capital city Kabul. They are adding to the ever-growing suffering of Afghanistan," he said. Enditem