International Day against Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking being marked

International Day against Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking being marked
27.06.2007 Bilal Basharat from Kabul
The International Day against Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking is being commemorated yesterday by Ministry of Counter Narcotics at Inter Continental Hotel Conference Hall.
Since the establishment of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan in 2002, The International Day against Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking is commemorated every year on 26th June in Afghanistan as in the rest of the world.
Engineer Habibullah Qaderi, Minister of Counter Narcotics ministry Said there are many factors behind drug addiction in Afghanistan such as; poverty, unemployment, social & cultural problems, war, immigration and lack of health facilities.
"In addition, one of its considerable factors is cultivation, abundance and low price of drugs in the country which cause the number of drug addicts to increase day by day." , Qaderi said.
The commemoration of this day aims to increase the awareness on the drug harms among the Afghan community as well as draw attention of the governmental organizations, He added.
"This ceremony is intended to intensify hatred of all the tribes against drug phenomenon so that they could be encouraged to stop this evil by their social efforts." He said.
According to the resolution number (112-42) on 7th December 1987 of UN Social Assembly, it has been decided to mark 26th June as the International Day against Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking; therefore 26 June is commemorated every year and the respective CN institutions stress on their real commitment in the combat against narcotic drugs throughout the member states including Afghanistan.
An interior ministry official told Afghanmania in the gathering, that 81 tonnes of drugs and 43 tonnes of chemicals used in their processing were seized and 46 heroin-manufacturing labs destroyed in different provinces over the last 15 months.

British Ambassador Sherard Cowper Coles, whose country is playing a key role in bankrolling an alternative livelihood programme for Afghan growers, called narcotics a dangerous cancer.
If the Afghans were willing to cure the cancer, the envoy pledged, they would certainly provide them all possible help.
For his part, US Ambassador William Wood said 10 percent of the heroin smuggled into his country was from Afghanistan. If the smuggling further increased, he warned, the US would have to mull a more robust response.

AfghanMania correspondent: Bilal Basharat

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