Drugs undermine Afghanistan's efforts to rebuild

By Tan Ee Lyn

FAIZABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Jam Bigum, a drug addict in Afghanistan's impoverished northern province of Badakhshan, feeds her three-month-old son opium three times a day to keep him quiet.

"The baby got addicted in my womb. He will die of crying if I don't give him opium. When I give him opium he becomes quiet and sleeps," she said. The infant had an empty gaze and appeared drowsy throughout the interview.

Afghanistan is the world's largest opium producer and exporter but most people tend to forget that it is also a huge narcotics consumer. A 2005 survey estimated that there are some 920,000 drug users in a country of 26 million.

For a long time, people living in remote parts of Afghanistan have had a casual attitude towards opium, using it as a panacea for just about anything due to a lack of medicines. Like Bigum's baby, they are fed opium so their mothers can work.

But such lifelong addiction exacts a tremendous strain, sapping people of their energy to work, slowly undermining their health as well as the general well-being of their family.

"Opium covers up the symptoms of tuberculosis, like cough and pain, and the condition worsens. This is a problem because the person is infectious," said a doctor in Badakhshan who helps drug addicts. He asked to have his name withheld.

"Addicts do anything to feed their addiction, they even sell their property. They lose everything."

For Naik Bakhat, a 35-year-old mother of four, her life and her destiny seem to revolve around her addiction.