Why is everything silenced in regard
to Afghanistan´s opium addiction among children?
There are coming reports by the U.N
showing that thousands of civilian death´s and injuries only during 2012,
unmentiogned the serious sideaffect of the conflict – the high number of opium
addicted children in Afghanistan.
But the situation is not limited to
Afghanistan, children are affected even inPakistan, ten of thousands without
support or care. Noone cares but new policies are needed to adress this new
catastrophe. A study conducted in Afghanistan showed that more than 25% of
homes where adult addicts and it was found that there were signs of significant
drug exposure with children as low as 14 month old. The children exhibited
typical behavior for opium – heroin addicts. It as similar as to th secon hand
smokers, it pose a serious risk to children´s health. So far the extent of
health problems among children as a result of an expures is not yet known, but
what we know is that the number of adult drug addict has increased from 920 000
in 2005 to over 1.5 million in 2010. According to the Ministry of
Counter-Narcotis in Afghanistan het old that at least 25% of these users
thought to be women and children. If this continues Afghanistan will be the
world´s top drug using nation. No other country produces as much heroin, opium
and haschisch as Afghanistan, a country already ravaged by war and conflicts.
The U.S and other allys do not want to taket hat war beside the war on
terrorism. Control efforts so far have been concentrated on poppy eradiction
and interdiction to stem exports. Less or no attention has been paid to the
rising domestic addiction problem especially among children.
A leading factor using drugs are the
high unenployment rates throughout the entire country, social upheavals caused
by the war and those that preceded it and all the people returning from refugee
camps from Iran and pakistan who became addicts while abroad. This has been a
serious problem particularly among street children. According to estimates,
there are at least 35-50 000 children in the city of kabul who are forced by
tehir parents or other adult sto live and beg in the streets or to work with
anything to contribute for the families survival of the day. These children are
subject to all kinds of abuse. Many of them end up in organized prostitution
rings as part of the sex trade mainly to Pakistan. They are often sold for just
a few dollars, transported into other countrys where they are obliged to work
as prostitutes or otherwise simply disappear. Children who inject drugs facing
normally the additional risk of HIV/AIDS infection by sharing contaminated
syringes. We can call it the silent ”tsunami” in Afghanistan som say.
Afghanistan has treatment centers for
the problem but they are dispersed throughout the country, most of them small,
poorly staffed and underfunded.
The United States and their allys are
not interested fighting that war while it is not at home, they have the
resources to at least expand and adequately fund such treatment and
rehabcenters throughout the country. The great number of addicted childreng are
growing in the country and is one of the darkest legacies of this ill fated war
which will not find the way out while we are not fighting for a full solution.
War lords, talibans and other powerful people in the country having to much
money in it.
