Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Afghanistan About to Become a Drug State

Arab News reports (3 March 2005) that opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan increased further in 2004, posing a threat to the country’s stability, and has reared its head in Pakistan after a long absence, the International Narcotics Control Board said here yesterday. Find the full story here.

Heroin shippers target Tajikistan

BBC News reported on 3 March 2004 that the United Nations annual report on the illegal drug trade has recorded a huge rise in the heroin trade through Central Asia, especially Tajikistan. Find the full story here.

Tajikistan's battle with addiction

BBC News reported in June 2000 that after years of civil war, the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan is now facing a new and growing problem - drug addiction. Tajikistan is one of the Central Asian states in the front line against drug traffickers operating from Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of opium. Find the full story here.

Tajikistan at crossroads of the drug trade

For the Detroit Free Press, Mark McDonald reported on 4 May 2004 that Afghan narco-barons had begun stamping their brand names on the 2.2-pound bags of heroin they smuggle out of central Asia to buyers in Moscow, London, New York and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Sacks of high-quality Afghan heroin seized in Tajikistan carried the trademarks Super Power and 555. Some of the sacks, which were hidden inside foil-lined containers of instant cappuccino mix, even included the addresses of the labs in Afghanistan where the heroin had been refined. Drug-control experts say the number of processing facilities in Afghanistan has exploded over the last year, and a Western-led campaign against opium-growing and heroin laboratories has been a wholesale failure. The trade and huge sums of money involved threaten to undermine vulnerable bordering nations, such as Tajikistan. Find the full story here.