Drug abuse in Afghanistan

1. The two major drugs abused in Afghanistan are hashish and opium. Opium is either smoked or eaten. Hashish is only smoked. 2. Solitary abuse of one single drug, either hashish or opium, is the common feature of drug abuse in Afghanistan. 3. Abuse of other patent drugs as well as multiple drug abuse by the same individual, increasingly common elsewhere, is quite rare. 4. Self-treatment is a major cause of drug abuse in Afghanistan while escape from boredom and lack of work and motivation is another. 5. Hashish as well as opium is commonly abused by people of a low socioeconomical standard. 6. Alcohol, a more recent introduction by the upper class, is becoming popular among city dwellers with major risks involved for the future. 7. Drug abuse in Afghanistan has so far not created problems comparable to those in the West, although there is no guarantee that in future it will not do so. Coercive measures aimed at depriving an individual of his drug of choice may involve the greater risk of drug substitution which will then be an even more difficult problem to manage. 8. Factors involved in prevention as well as cure of the drug-dependent population in Afghanistan have been discussed.