A United Nations report released on Sunday found that while the Taliban had reduced heroin trafficking since gaining power, methamphetamine trafficking had increased.
“The surge in methamphetamine trafficking in Afghanistan and the region suggests a significant shift in the illicit drug market and demands our immediate attention,” said Ghada Waly, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
After retaking control in August 2021, the Taliban declared in April 2022 that they would no longer permit the cultivation of illicit drugs in Afghanistan. Afghan poppy producers have complained to Taliban officials that the group’s security forces have destroyed their crops and cracked down on them.
The UNODC noted that while heroin trafficking has decreased, meth trafficking “has intensified since the ban.”
Also, the Taliban rejects a United Nations assessment that says terrorist organisations are operating in Afghanistan.
In the five years leading up to 2021, methamphetamine seizures in and around Afghanistan increased by a factor of 12. Increases in seizures were also reported in neighbouring countries between 2019 and 2022, including Iran and Pakistan. Methamphetamine with a likely Afghan provenance has been seized in countries as far away as France and Australia.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that many of the chemicals in cold and flu remedies were used in the production of meth from Afghanistan.
Although the ephedra plant, which may be used to generate methamphetamine, is native to Afghanistan, the UNODC said that Afghanistan did not rely on the plant alone for manufacturing because of the large quantities required and the risk of inconsistent crops.
The UNODC warned that the danger posed by the production of methamphetamine using over-the-counter cold medicines and industrial chemicals is far worse.
