Blood, Smack & Tears: Afghanistan's Heroin Hell

Afghanistan. This country is the world's biggest heroin producer.

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

90% of all opiate drugs come from here.

But now it's one of the worst consumers

of illegal narcotics anywhere.

The addiction situation in Afghanistan

is one of the most disastrous.

We need to act now.

The nation's drug habit is tearing society apart...

life by life.

Tahir Qadiry is a London-based Afghan journalist

with all the connections on the ground.

This is one of the unstable places in the north of Afghanistan.

Now he's back home to find out why this is happening

and investigate the heroin epidemic

that's destroying Afghanistan from within.

Kabul, Afghanistan.

From a distance this city looks beautiful.

But Kabul, like Afghanistan as a whole,

is suffering from an epidemic of hard drug addiction.

More than a million Afghans are now problem drug users -

proportionately the highest figure in the world -

and that number is rising fast.

Music and dancing,

but this is no party.

These men are all heroin addicts.

They're attending The Nejat Centre,

a charity devoted to helping drug users recover.

Tahir has come here to try to understand their world of addiction.

Jawad is just 18 years old, but he's been hooked on heroin for 10 years.

His uncle introduced him to drugs when he was a small child

to make him work harder on the land.

IN TRANSLATION

Babrak is 26.

He used to smoke hashish, but got addicted to heroin two years ago,

after some friends gave him some to try.

Babrak's a bit like an older brother to Jawad

as they try to make their way through rehab.

Despite their very different social classes,

both well understand the realities of hard drug abuse in Afghanistan.

But just how bad is it?

Every day, the Nejat Centre's Outreach Team go into Kabul

to try and bring basic social and medical care

to the city's drug addicts.

IN TRANSLATION

The team drives down to the Kabul River,

an area where addicts are known to congregate

to buy and take their heroin.

This is the centre of the capital city.

But the Kabul River is like an open sewer,

its banks host to human misery and degradation.

This is a wretched place.

RETCHING COUGH

The Outreach Team give basic medical care...

..cleaning the open sores and abscesses of the junkies.

They also offer food, clothes and advice on rehabilitation...

To try and prevent the spread of HIV and other blood-borne diseases,

they give out clean syringes...

..and collect the hundreds of used ones

that litter the riverbank.

I've always come to Kabul but I've never looked at

this side of Kabul, at this river, really.

I mean, I've walked quite a lot on that side, which is so beautiful.

But on this side, it's completely a different world.

With lots and lots of these drug addicts,

sleeping here, eating here.

I mean, people in Kabul, I assume no-one really looks at it,

and that's really, you know, the dark side of the city.

Unemployment here is almost 40%, and is a major reason

many of the heroin addicts say they use drugs.

It isn't just limited to the poor and uneducated.

This man holds a university degree

and had once worked as a hospital manager.

There's a lot of people,

lots of educated people, that they are taking drugs.

And they are all about jobs,

because they don't have jobs

so, if you take drugs, you will be calm,

you will find relaxation.

So when he got once,

so you become a junkie.

How do you feel sitting under this bridge?

I...

When I sit under this bridge, I feel very, very bad.

Very bad.

As bad as I can't explain it for you.

I don't have any words for you

to say when I sit here how I feel.

I am... I am ready to die.

Dying is better than to sit under this bridge.

It's so sad, when you look at the river

and also at the people, when you hear their stories,

they're all painful and I don't know,

sometimes I feel like one of them could have been me

or anyone else, you know?

Because of unemployment and because of lots of...

You know, the decades of war,

just hanging around here and taking drugs.

But for the hardcore addicts

places like this aren't just somewhere to sit and get high.

It's where they live.

Suddenly, there's a commotion.

The police arrive and they start kicking and threatening

the crowd of addicts.

Throughout this, a NATO observation blimp hovers above.

Despite pledges to tackle Afghanistan's drugs trade,

when foreign troops arrived in 2001, results have been very mixed.

They've concentrated on fighting Taliban insurgents,

often turning a blind eye to narcotics

fearing alienating a rural population

who rely on opium farming to survive,

and opium is the raw material for making heroin.

The collective trauma of more than three decades of extreme violence

is another reason Afghans turn to drugs.

A few days later, and Tahir's meeting Jawad again

near his home in a run-down part of Kabul.

Drug addiction destroys families,

ruining the lives of those close to them,

as well as the addicts themselves.

Jawad's father is dead.

His disabled mum is dealing with her son's problems on her own.

IN TRANSLATION

Jawad's mum is desperate for him to quit,

but is also so concerned about him stealing to buy his heroin

that she actually supports his drug habit by begging.

SHE SPEAKS ARABIC

All this old woman really wants from life and God

is for her son to get clean.

But Jawad is coming down and will soon be in pain,

and she loves him too much to allow that.

She needs to help him.

So, yet again, she gets Jawad to push her out

onto the streets of Kabul to beg for money to feed his drug habit.

ENGINE STARTS AND REVS

Money isn't a problem for Jawad's friend and fellow addict, Babrak.

He comes from a well-to-do family,

but has found heroin to be one of life's great levellers.

Babrak used to be a gym instructor

in a bodybuilding club before he got into drugs.

Now, thanks to the heroin, he's just a shadow of his former self.

To show Jawad the possible consequences of his heroin habit,

Tahir's taking him down to the Kabul River

so he can see the horrific reality of that place.

It's where Jawad could easily end up if he doesn't beat drugs.

But, as Tahir and Jawad get closer to the drug users,

they start backing off and waving the camera away.

It's clear they're not happy with being filmed again.

Well, I think...

Yeah, so, I think the situation doesn't look really good,

especially cos some of them don't like to be filmed

and some of them, I think, they are not living here,

they only come for smoking,

so therefore the situation may escalate.

I think it's best for us to leave.

Jawad?

Widespread heroin use has rocketed here in the past ten years.

But opium, the raw material from which heroin is refined,

has been around in Afghanistan for centuries.

Then, as now, people used opium as a kind of medical cure-all.

Tahir's contacts have arranged for him to meet some opium users

in a very old and historical back-street neighbourhood.

These traditional Turkmen carpet weavers take the drug

to ease their back pain and help them work longer hours.

The change in just over a decade in the way Afghans consume drugs

is still being understood.

Many experts link it to heroin being more readily available -

it's now being refined from raw opium in Afghanistan itself.

Despite billions of dollars spent

fighting cultivation and trafficking,

about 90% of the world's illegal opiate supply comes from here.

Many people hoping to escape their problems turn to drugs,

simply because they're cheap and easy to get hold of.

Traditionally, what we tend to argue

is that the demand causes the supply.

What we have forgotten, though,

is that the supply by itself creates demand.

And that's what we are witnessing now in this part of the world,

Afghanistan and neighbouring countries,

where the addiction rates are going up tremendously.

There was no demand in the past

but, because of the production locally

and the trafficking across the borders,

you create an enormous demand potential

within this part of the world.

To find out more about supply and demand,

Tahir's leaving Kabul and flying to northern Afghanistan.

95% of Afghanistan's opium poppies

are grown in the south and west of the country.

Both dangerous areas where the insurgency is strong.

But Tahir is heading to Balkh, one of several northern provinces

officially deemed "poppy free"

due to government eradication efforts.

This is one of the unstable places in the north of Afghanistan

and in the past, these, you know, across the road,

they were the poppy fields and the farmers used to cultivate poppies.

Even now, there are rumours that they could be cultivating,

but it could be in private.

Although local heroin production has been all but stamped out,

there is still an active trade in narcotics.

This is one of the key drug-trafficking routes north

to Russia, Europe and beyond.

And the dealers are making more money than ever.

It's a high-risk business.

Local contacts fix Tahir a meeting with a heroin dealer

who has just survived an assassination attempt

at the hands of rival gangsters.

He's been shot twelve times.

So, is the drugs game really worth the risk?

Afghanistan's rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world,

partly due to the vast sums of money

generated by the illegal drugs trade.

So, what about law enforcement?

Tahir's going out with the paramilitary

Northern Border Police.

They operate as a land and air force

to combat drug production and trafficking.

Both the Taliban and local warlords

finance their operations through the heroin trade.

Afghan drug cartels are heavily armed.

Taking them on can be a deadly business.

Afghan officials increasingly realise

tackling both trafficking and addiction

should be at the heart of efforts

to improve the country's long-term security.

Back in Kabul, it's getting towards evening

and Jawad needs to buy his daily fix of heroin.

He says Tahir can accompany him to better understand what life

is like for a heroin addict.

Because it could be dangerous to follow him on foot

through the dark streets, Jawad travels in a car with Tahir.

The car then gets stuck in Kabul's notorious rush-hour traffic,

and the later it gets, the worse Jawad's drug cravings become.

He disappears into the night.

For his own safety, Tahir stays near the car.

Despite his youth, Jawad is an experienced drug user

and knows exactly where to find the dealers.

Jawad takes Tahir to a park that's frequented by drug users.

First of all, he smokes some of the heroin off tinfoil

to get an immediate hit.

Another addict comes over and ties his arm to help raise a vein

so Jawad can inject the remaining heroin.

Then he starts a more elaborate procedure,

preparing to inject himself for a longer-lasting effect.

But, suddenly, Jawad starts to panic.

He's somehow managed to lose his packet of heroin

and starts frantically searching the parkland.

Well, he can't give up. Let's go.

Despite Tahir's pleas, Jawad insists on staying behind

to try to find his missing drugs.

The Afghan government's entire annual health budget for treating

the country's one million drug addicts is £1.3 million.

This works out at around £1.20 per addict, per year.

Jawad consumes heroin worth about three times that every single day.

Despite the misery caused by drug use,

treatment isn't a budget priority for the cash-strapped government.

The Regional Hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif

in Balkh Province is typical of the facilities on offer.

Its specialist wing for treating drug addiction

runs an intensive therapy and de-tox programme

and can treat 50 patients at a time.

They do what they can, but in Balkh Province alone,

the authorities estimate there are over 85,000 problem drug users.

Over 120,000 Afghan women are drug addicts.

But ignorance of the risks means their children

and even babies can also develop drug problems.

The baby will have to go through

painful withdrawal symptoms to get better.

But other children are also at serious risk.

An outreach team from the Hospital

is visiting a so-called problem family

in the run-down suburbs of Mazar-e-Sharif.

They, too, have a little baby.

Because of the shame of addiction, affected families

can find themselves isolated from their community.

We are just going to visit a family

that the whole family are drug users.

But, because there is still a stigma attached to using drugs,

we need to keep a very low profile.

The mother smokes heroin every day.

Her teenage son also has a history of using.

Her husband is ashamed of them both.

But the doctors are especially concerned about the new baby

being exposed to drugs through her mother's heroin fumes.

A week later,

the medics went back to do some tests.

Their worst fears had come true -

the baby had become addicted from inhaling her mother's heroin smoke.

Afghanistan now had one more little drug addict to contend with.

Back in Kabul,

the one-time child addict Jawad

is still trying to beat his heroin habit.

DOCTOR SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

Both he and Babrak are back at the Nejat Centre

attending another therapy session.

Everyone here in rehab has a different story

but they've all ended up in the same place -

addicted to drugs and desperate for help.

IN TRANSLATION:

Their aim now is to secure a place on the detox programme,

where they can go cold turkey and try to quit for good.

But to win a place on the detox regime,

the addicts here have to show doctors

they've significantly reduced their heroin intake.

After the therapy sessions, the addicts are enjoying lunch...

..when, out of the blue, Jawad gets a phone call...

JAWAD SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

..and he falls apart.

JAWAD SPEAKS TEARFULLY

It was his sister calling from his home town in Badakhshan -

she'd found out from their mother that he was finally in rehab.

He's neither seen nor heard from her for seven years,

since he was disowned by his extended family for being an addict.

And suddenly, the loneliness and disgrace

of his situation is overwhelming.

Jawad's uncle introduced him to drugs

when he was just eight years old.

The uncle is now clean, but the damage he's done is plain to see.

For Tahir, who lives with his family in safety in London,

the tragedy of Jawad's life in Afghanistan

is suddenly too much to bear.

It was a very emotional scene and I don't know really...

Sometimes it's really hard, you know,

to understand someone and to...

You know, sometimes, living, you know, outside, we feel so blessed.

But then, look at that guy. I mean, he's not to blame.

And he has spoken to his sister after seven years.

After, you know, he hasn't seen her.

And then, he's not to blame.

He was just saying that his uncle is to blame, who has quit -

he is living in a luxurious life. and look at this boy!

I don't know.

But it is possible to recover from drug addiction.

Aziz is a social worker

who helps recovering addicts from the Balkh Clinic.

He is himself a former junkie.

Beating drug addiction is always a personal struggle.

A few days later, and the boys have managed

to secure their coveted place in the detox regime.

Both have apparently reduced their daily heroin dosage

and are ready to take the next step -

quitting for good.

It's a bit like joining the army.

The addicts are all having their heads shaved

while joking nervously

in anticipation of the collective struggles ahead.

THEY CHATTER IN OWN LANGUAGE

Coming off heroin is an extremely painful process.

An addict's nervous system gets used to being numbed on drugs.

So withdrawal becomes progressively more agonising as the body rebels

and the cravings become overpowering.

THEY CHATTER

The addicts are searched for concealed drugs...

..and then go up to the dormitory to detox for the next 72 hours.

It isn't going to be easy.

One day in, and things seem to be going well...

..although it's clearly a struggle.

Looking at the bigger picture,

there are fears the sheer scale of the drug problem could further

destabilise this country. This year, foreign powers are completing

their military pull-out and reducing investment across Afghanistan.

This poses enormous challenges for a government

which knows that it will have a tremendous fiscal gap already,

I mean, post 2014, and now has

an added burden on its public health budget

with an addiction population which is just out of control.

That by itself will pose enormous economic problems

for this new situation in which this country finds itself.

And we need to help our Afghan brothers and sisters

to cope with that, because alone, by themselves,

they will not be able to do so.

The bitter Afghan winter sweeps in over Kabul.

And then Tahir gets a phone call.

SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

-TAHIR SIGHS

-Oh...

Oh, it was a call from the doctor of the Nejat Centre, and he said

Jawad, last night, was crying and shouting and at 12 o'clock

they had to bring a car to take him back home, which is really bad news.

I mean, he hasn't really made it.

And he couldn't even stay clean of drugs for two nights, really.

Tahir drives to the centre as fast as possible,

to find out exactly what's happened.

After a second full day of detoxing, everyone looks much rougher.

It's a very difficult process.

Too difficult, it seems, for Jawad.

The doctor explains Jawad must have lied about

decreasing his heroin use,

so his withdrawal symptoms were much worse than for the others.

Heroin is one of the most destructive and addictive drugs

in the world, and it's damaging Afghanistan

just as surely as it's ruining Jawad's life.

But as Tahir drives away, there's one more surprise in store.

Oh, Jawad!

JAWAD AND TAHIR CONVERSE IN OWN LANGUAGE

Jawad says he'd quit rehab

because one of the other addicts insulted his mum.

The tragedy is that

what his mother wants more than anything in the world

is for her son to get clean of drugs.

MUSIC: "Heroin" by The Velvet Underground

Angry and friendless, alone in a blizzard, and still addicted...

..Jawad's chances of beating his addiction seem bleak.

And for Afghanistan,

winning the wider war on drugs will be just as hard.

# I...don't know

# Just where I'm going

# But I'm

# Gonna try for the kingdom

# If I can... #