Cheap, readily available opium, heroin and hashish have a profound effect on a population.?Peshawar is on the northern Pakistani border with Afghanistan, and thus receives a large drug smuggling community, which addicts and gun wielding drug-lords inevitably follow.?<br /> UNODC data shows that more land is used to grow opium in Afghanistan, than for coca in Latin America.? ?It was estimated that in 2008 90% of the heroin traded on the streets of Britain was grown in the fields of Afghanistan. <br /> Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the level of opium poppy production has increased year on year.<br /> <br /> From talking to aid workers in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, I learned that opium is used by local people as a 'one-for-all' remedy. In rural areas newborn babies are given a small amount of opium to 'calm' them if they cry. Thus many babies are addicted to opium before the age of four months old. Cold, headache and tiredness are also treated by opium in areas where doctors are not available.
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