Taliban Vows To Use Force vs Drug Addiction

Now the uncontested rulers of Afghanistan, the Taliban have set their sights on stamping out the scourge of narcotics addiction, even if by force, Samya Kullab, Mstyslav Chernov, and Felipe Dana reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: Grave sight in Kabul

At nightfall, the battle-hardened fighters-turned-policemen scour the capital’s drug-ravaged underworld. Below Kabul’s bustling city bridges, amid piles of garbage and streams of filthy water, hundreds of homeless men addicted to heroin and methamphetamines are rounded up, beaten, and forcibly taken to treatment centers. AP gained rare access to one such raid last week.

The scene provided a window into the new order under Taliban governance: The men — many with mental illness, according to doctors — sat against stone walls with their hands tied. They were told to sober up or face beatings.

The heavy-handed methods are welcomed by some health workers, who have had no choice but to adapt to Taliban rule.

“We are not in a democracy anymore, this is a dictatorship. And the use of force is the only way to treat these people,” said Dr. Fazalrabi Mayar, working in a treatment facility. He was referring specifically to Afghans addicted to heroin and meth.

During the insurgency years, the Taliban profited from the trade by taxing traffickers, a practice applied to a wide variety of industries in the areas under their control. Research by David Mansfield, an expert on the Afghan drug trade, suggests the group made $20 million in 2020, a small fraction compared to other sources of revenue from tax collection.

Publicly, it has always denied links to the drug trade. But the Taliban also implemented the only largely successful ban on opium production, between 2000-2001, just before the US invasion. Police roundups of addicts did occur during previous administrations. But the Taliban are more forceful and feared.

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