UN says drastic rise in meth trade in Afghanistan after opiate ban

Trafficking of the highly addictive stimulant methamphetamine in Afghanistan has surged in recent years, said a UN report published Sunday, indicating an expansion of the drug's production following the Taliban's crackdown on the opiate trade.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have clamped down on the decades-old, lucrative trade in poppy tar - the psychoactive substance in heroin -since surging back to power two years ago.

But while heroin trade has slowed, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), methamphetamine trafficking in and around Afghanistan has "intensified since the ban".


By monitoring drug busts in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries, UNODC has found a "drastic, nearly twelvefold increase in seizures of the drug in five years from 2.5 tons in 2017 to 29.7 tons in 2021", said a statement announcing the report. AFP