‘Drug fight hinges on collective international efforts’

KABUL: A senior Afghan official has called for joint efforts of the international community to fight against drugs. “Combating drug problems and getting rid of the menace require collective efforts,” Salamat Azimi, the Afghan Minister of Counter Narcotics, told a conference.

“Afghanistan has been suffering from drugs and drug-related violence. Overcoming the war on drugs needs an inclusive, national, regional and global response.”

The Afghan government is deter- mined to control the cultivation and production of illicit drugs, and has taken new initiatives and measures to fight the menace, including implementation of the National Drug Action Plan (2015-19), and providing alternative livelihood for farmers in rural areas, she noted.

The 7th Meeting of the Central Asian Counter-Narcotic Quintet Conference was attended by member countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Russia. However no Pakistani representative attended the meeting.

Conference participants issued a joint statement, expressing concern about the current opium cultivation in Afghanistan, and the likely usage and trafficking of new psychoactive substances in the region.

They also stressed the urgent need to respond to the serious challenges posed by the increasing links between drugs, trafficking, corruption and other forms of drug related organised crime including “money-laundering, cybercrime and, in some cases, terrorism.”

The participants also agreed to look for new and innovative approaches to fight drugs, and to adopt measures to improve sharing of intelligence on transnational organised drug crime, smuggling and the sale of illegal drugs.

The vast majority of the world’s opium poppy, the raw element for making heroin, has been cultivated in militancy-hit Afghanistan.

Last year some 3 300 tons of opium was produced in Afghanistan and some 1.9 million to 2.4 million adult drug addicts have been living in the country. – Xinhua