Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Chicago Tribune
October 1, 2008
Pg. 11
Tribune correspondent Kim Barker reports that nearly one-third of the Afghan law-enforcement officers tested showed positive for drug use
KABUL, Afghanistan -- If his job doesn't kill him, the heroin might.
Mohammad Akbar is a first lieutenant in the highly touted Afghan National Army, considered crucial to the future of this war-torn country. But for three years, Akbar has also been a junkie, shooting up heroin with hundreds of other addicts in a bombed-out building in Kabul littered with disposable needle wrappers and human waste.
"I come here because of the pressure," said Akbar, 25, who is married and has a daughter. "Pressure made me an addict. Otherwise, life is too difficult."
Drug abuse is an increasing problem not just for Afghanistan, which produces most of the world's heroin and opium, but for the very men charged with protecting the country and enforcing the nation's drug laws as a Taliban-led insurgency escalates.
Police and soldiers are using opium and heroin even as they are supposed to stop traffickers, who often smuggle drugs out of Afghanistan through police and army checkpoints, according to government and Western officials. Many Afghans blame the police, especially, for corruption and involvement in the drug trade. But rehabilitation experts say the problem also exists in the army, and soldiers confirm it, even though drug use in the security forces has long been a taboo subject for the government.
That's changing. Recent tests show as many as 1 in 3 of the tested police and police recruits use drugs. The figure shows just how pervasive drug abuse is and highlights the state of the Afghan police, many of whom use drugs to cope with the stress of facing Taliban-led militants. The tests, administered this summer by Afghan health-care groups at the request of Britain and the U.S. as part of new training programs for the police, are the first time that police and recruits have been tested for drugs. The testing program soon will be expanded, and eventually any police officer who tests positive for drugs will be kicked out, officials said.
The army has not systematically screened soldiers for drugs.
"This is a new issue," said Tariq Suliman, executive director of the Nejat Drug Rehabilitation Center, which has treated soldiers and police for addiction in Kabul. "It's a hidden problem. This is important, because the police and army are supposed to support and improve society, not use drugs."
At the bombed-out former Russian Cultural Center, where addicts get high and then sleep in the concrete rubble, men in army uniforms come to use heroin and opium.
"They are here all the time," said self-described addict Mohammad Mukhtar, 22, who used to be in the army, standing next to another admitted addict who is in the police academy.
A man in an army uniform injected heroin and walked into the street. He passed a sober army soldier, who happened to be going by. "What should we do with them?" asked the soldier, grimacing. "There are so many of them now."
According to doctors and government officials, fighters in Afghanistan have long relied on drugs for courage or to kill pain.
But drug abuse has become so rampant with police that two pilot drug programs were started in late July at the police recruitment centers in the western city of Herat and the southern city of Kandahar. Of 204 recruits tested, mainly from the Taliban strongholds of Maiwand district in Kandahar province and Sangin district in Helmand province, 35 recruits were positive for heroin and opium and 33 more were positive for cannabis. In other words, one-third tested positive for drugs.
Drug use is thought to be worse in the south and west, where it's tough to recruit police and where militants are strongest.
"They need them to have the courage" to fight militants, said a British Embassy official who is working to help get the police off drugs. "But it's also one of the reasons they get killed. You hear of checkpoints getting entirely wiped out."
In June, as part of an intensive police retraining program spearheaded by the U.S. military, about 1,400 Afghan police were given a limited drug screening that included testing for cannabis but not heroin. The Interior Ministry had wanted to fire any cops using drugs but was forced to reconsider when roughly one-third of the police tested positive for cannabis.
Throughout the country, hashish is not considered a drug and is often thought of as much more acceptable than alcohol. It's not uncommon to show up at a remote police station and be greeted by a cloud of marijuana smoke.
In the future, police at the retraining program will also be tested for opium and heroin. The eight-week program also will feature a week of drug-awareness training, put together with the help of the British Embassy.
At first, cops who test positive will have the option of going through treatment. But eventually the Interior Ministry plans to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on drugs and test police regularly.
The army does not have a comprehensive anti-drugs policy.
Gen. Zaher Azimi, spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said known addicts are treated at army hospitals. He blamed drug use in the army on the fact that soldiers are being relied on for non-army duties.
"If you put an army soldier at a checkpoint on the side of the road, what do you think will happen?" Azimi asked.
He also said most Afghans did not consider marijuana a drug.
"We can hardly find anyone who hasn't smoked hashish in Afghanistan," Azimi said. "But we are working on that. We are really working very hard to teach our soldiers ethics."
Busted
204 -- Police recruits tested
35 -- tested positive for heroin and opium
33 -- Tested positive for cannabis
October 1, 2008
Pg. 11
Tribune correspondent Kim Barker reports that nearly one-third of the Afghan law-enforcement officers tested showed positive for drug use
KABUL, Afghanistan -- If his job doesn't kill him, the heroin might.
Mohammad Akbar is a first lieutenant in the highly touted Afghan National Army, considered crucial to the future of this war-torn country. But for three years, Akbar has also been a junkie, shooting up heroin with hundreds of other addicts in a bombed-out building in Kabul littered with disposable needle wrappers and human waste.
"I come here because of the pressure," said Akbar, 25, who is married and has a daughter. "Pressure made me an addict. Otherwise, life is too difficult."
Drug abuse is an increasing problem not just for Afghanistan, which produces most of the world's heroin and opium, but for the very men charged with protecting the country and enforcing the nation's drug laws as a Taliban-led insurgency escalates.
Police and soldiers are using opium and heroin even as they are supposed to stop traffickers, who often smuggle drugs out of Afghanistan through police and army checkpoints, according to government and Western officials. Many Afghans blame the police, especially, for corruption and involvement in the drug trade. But rehabilitation experts say the problem also exists in the army, and soldiers confirm it, even though drug use in the security forces has long been a taboo subject for the government.
That's changing. Recent tests show as many as 1 in 3 of the tested police and police recruits use drugs. The figure shows just how pervasive drug abuse is and highlights the state of the Afghan police, many of whom use drugs to cope with the stress of facing Taliban-led militants. The tests, administered this summer by Afghan health-care groups at the request of Britain and the U.S. as part of new training programs for the police, are the first time that police and recruits have been tested for drugs. The testing program soon will be expanded, and eventually any police officer who tests positive for drugs will be kicked out, officials said.
The army has not systematically screened soldiers for drugs.
"This is a new issue," said Tariq Suliman, executive director of the Nejat Drug Rehabilitation Center, which has treated soldiers and police for addiction in Kabul. "It's a hidden problem. This is important, because the police and army are supposed to support and improve society, not use drugs."
At the bombed-out former Russian Cultural Center, where addicts get high and then sleep in the concrete rubble, men in army uniforms come to use heroin and opium.
"They are here all the time," said self-described addict Mohammad Mukhtar, 22, who used to be in the army, standing next to another admitted addict who is in the police academy.
A man in an army uniform injected heroin and walked into the street. He passed a sober army soldier, who happened to be going by. "What should we do with them?" asked the soldier, grimacing. "There are so many of them now."
According to doctors and government officials, fighters in Afghanistan have long relied on drugs for courage or to kill pain.
But drug abuse has become so rampant with police that two pilot drug programs were started in late July at the police recruitment centers in the western city of Herat and the southern city of Kandahar. Of 204 recruits tested, mainly from the Taliban strongholds of Maiwand district in Kandahar province and Sangin district in Helmand province, 35 recruits were positive for heroin and opium and 33 more were positive for cannabis. In other words, one-third tested positive for drugs.
Drug use is thought to be worse in the south and west, where it's tough to recruit police and where militants are strongest.
"They need them to have the courage" to fight militants, said a British Embassy official who is working to help get the police off drugs. "But it's also one of the reasons they get killed. You hear of checkpoints getting entirely wiped out."
In June, as part of an intensive police retraining program spearheaded by the U.S. military, about 1,400 Afghan police were given a limited drug screening that included testing for cannabis but not heroin. The Interior Ministry had wanted to fire any cops using drugs but was forced to reconsider when roughly one-third of the police tested positive for cannabis.
Throughout the country, hashish is not considered a drug and is often thought of as much more acceptable than alcohol. It's not uncommon to show up at a remote police station and be greeted by a cloud of marijuana smoke.
In the future, police at the retraining program will also be tested for opium and heroin. The eight-week program also will feature a week of drug-awareness training, put together with the help of the British Embassy.
At first, cops who test positive will have the option of going through treatment. But eventually the Interior Ministry plans to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on drugs and test police regularly.
The army does not have a comprehensive anti-drugs policy.
Gen. Zaher Azimi, spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said known addicts are treated at army hospitals. He blamed drug use in the army on the fact that soldiers are being relied on for non-army duties.
"If you put an army soldier at a checkpoint on the side of the road, what do you think will happen?" Azimi asked.
He also said most Afghans did not consider marijuana a drug.
"We can hardly find anyone who hasn't smoked hashish in Afghanistan," Azimi said. "But we are working on that. We are really working very hard to teach our soldiers ethics."
Busted
204 -- Police recruits tested
35 -- tested positive for heroin and opium
33 -- Tested positive for cannabis