United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA)

Fact sheet on Drugs and Crime

Drug cultivation, production, trafficking and abuse

The last 23 years of conflict and civil war in the country created a situation which has contributed to making Afghanistan the largest opium producing country in the world. The country's share in global opium production rose from 31% in 1985 to 41% in 1990 and, with a record harvest of 4600 tons, to 79% of global illicit opium production in 1999 and nearly 70% in 2002. In 2001, however, following a ban on opium poppy cultivation introduced by the Taliban in 2000, Afghanistan produced only 12% of global supply, 185 metric tons. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 2002 Annual Opium Poppy Survey estimated 74,000 ha of land under poppy cultivation in the country and production estimates in 2002 of around 3,400 metric tons.

Between 70% and 90% of the heroin found in Europe has been processed from opium produced in Afghanistan. Almost all of the opiates consumed in neighbouring countries in the Middle East and Africa originate in Afghanistan. In addition, the assessments carried out by UNODC suggest a general increase in drug abuse in recent years in Afghanistan, helping to refute the common perception that drug addiction is a "Western" problem.

Action so far:

The objective of the UNODC assistance programme for Afghanistan has been to contribute to the long-term and sustainable reduction and eventual elimination of illicit drug production, trafficking and drug abuse in the country. To achieve this, UNODC assistance throughout the 1990s has focused on the implementation of alternative development projects. However, following the establishment of the AIA, the role of UNODC has shifted more to an advisory function aimed at assisting the government in strengthening its capacity in all areas of drug control.

In 1996, UNODC designed a four-year pilot programme for Afghanistan (1997-2000) composed of four projects including Poppy Crop Reduction, Poppy Monitoring System, Capacity Building for Drug Control and Drug Demand Reduction Support.

Following the fall of the Taliban, UNODC has been working with the Transitional Government to develop a portfolio of projects that closely mirrors and supports the National Drug Control Strategy, put into effect by President Karzai in May 2003. Projects include activities in capacity building for drug control, law enforcement, drug demand reduction, alternative livelihood strategies, legal reforms and the surveying of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. In addition, UNODC is advancing the agenda of the Judicial Reform Commission by implementing projects in penitentiary reform, juvenile justice reform, and criminal law and criminal justice reform.

Plans for the future:

UNODC will continue its primary role of providing advisory and technical assistance to build capacity for drug control in the government, UN agencies, and other international and local institutions. The agency will also continue to assist the Counter Narcotics Directorate (CND) in developing its leading role as coordinator of drug control in Afghanistan by helping to assure close partnerships with UNAMA and lead donor nations such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the United States.

Those partnerships are made even more significant due to the fact that the UNODC Representative also functions as the Special Adviser on Drugs to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan, ensuring close cooperation with UNAMA and the UN System. To the extent possible, UNODC intends to place its international experts in the CND and relevant line ministries to ensure the rapid transfer of technical knowledge and skills in drug control and crime prevention to Afghan nationals.

UNODC is helping to strengthen six regional offices of the CND. In the law enforcement sector, the office is providing support, in the form of training and equipment, to the Ministry of Interior to establish a drug police interdiction and investigation capacity. UNODC is also implementing a project to strengthen the capacity of the border police to curb trafficking in narcotics between Afghanistan and Iran. In addition, the Ministry of Justice will be supported to ratify and enforce the new narcotics law in the country. Training will be provided to judicial personnel of the ministry for implementation of the law.

In demand reduction, an assessment was done about the problem of drug use in Kabul City with a view to expanding this sort of research to other parts of Afghanistan. Other activities will include home-based detoxification and treatment programmes.

UNODC is working closely with government officials and farming communities to elaborate alternative livelihood strategies to dissuade farmers from cultivating poppy.

In the area of justice and rule of law, the UNODC programme aims at strengthening the criminal justice system of the country, focusing on substantive and procedural criminal law, prosecution and its interfaces with criminal investigation departments, criminal law sections of the courts, administration of juvenile justice and the administration of criminal sentences, and the reform of the penitentiary system.