Afghanistan: Police destroys poppy on 40,000 acres of land in the Badakhshan province

KABUL (Afghanistan), July 16 (ANI): Poppy has been eradicated from around 40,000 acres of land in the Badakhshan province in the last three months, Khaama Press reported citing Shafiqullah Hafizi, the director of the counter-narcotics police department in the province.

“The poppy eradication campaign started three months ago, and so far, we have destroyed 40,000 acres of poppy, and the process will continue until the poppy fields are completely demolished in the province,” Hafizi said.

The official predicted further that the anti-poppy campaign would end soon.

Earlier, on Wednesday, a drug processing lab was destroyed by police in the Jawzjan province of northern Afghanistan, and the owner was taken into custody, Khaama Press reported.

In the eastern province of Ghazni, authorities destroyed 20 acres of poppies last week.
Saeed Iravani, the permanent representative of Iran to the UN, said earlier that the UNSC had expressed concern about the growth of drug production in Afghanistan.

The UN representative for Iran stated that although drug trafficking has decreased somewhat in Afghanistan, it is still a thriving industry, according to Khaama Press.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in a report earlier, said Afghanistan continued to account for the “majority (80 per cent) of global illicit opium production in 2022.”

In a separate report, UNODC said Afghanistan is home to an estimated 3.5 million drug users, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the total population.

“Since the political change in August 2021, most drug treatment and rehabilitation centres in the country are struggling to remain operational due to resource limitation,” the report said. (ANI)