Woman and child living with his heroin addiction

Zaher, 14, smokes heroin next to his mother's name and suhermana Gulparai Sabera 12. The image was taken one August 27, 2007 in Kabul, Afghanistan by Paula Bronstein of Getty Images.

Knowledge is a widow, has been smoking for four years since losing her husband. His sons, Zaher and Gulparai began two years ago, after seeing his mother. The cost for daily use of the drug is about $ 3.00 USD or 150 Afghani currency. Farmers of the Taliban in southern areas are also encouraged to cultivate opium. Although there are about 35,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan, drug trafficking has increased poppy production in Afghanistan is 95 percent of the world. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), opium production between 2005 and 2006 increased 57 percent and by 2007 an additional increase of 15% despite 600 million dollars for the fight against drugs by the U.S.. For 2008 there has been a 19 percent decline in opium-growing area, from 193,000 hectares in 2007 to 157,000 this year. On the other hand, has increased the number of provinces free of opium cultivation, from the thirteen who had the last year to 18, out of 34.

A few days ago Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Daud Daud, said he has made ​​"unprecedented progress" in his country in the fight against drugs , including the arrest of 500 traffickers in the last eight months, a statement collected by the humanitarian news agency UN IRIN.

Daud said that activities in the fight against drugs have "increased significantly" since 2007, and that during the last eight months have seized about 300 tons of cannabis, 25 tons of opium and heroin about ten. Figures that seem ridiculous for being the largest producer of opium poppies have seized many more tons of cannabis and heroin poppy that together.

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