One million Afghan women are drug addict: official report
Shares
KABUL - Afghanistan *Public health ministry officials have raised concern about the alarmingly high number of female drug addicts in the country.*
According to them at least one million women and 100,000 children are drug addicts.
Last year officials stated that three million people were addicts, but the new figure of one million female addicts could mean the total number is much higher than initially thought.
Shahpor Yusuf, the head of the anti-drug department at the public health ministry, said on Sunday at an event to mark International Women’s Day that the number of child addicts was also extremely high – at 100,000.
The children, officials said, were all below the age of 10.
Sunday’s ceremony was held at a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul.
“There are between 900,000 and million women and around 100,000 children who have turned to drugs,” Yusuf said.
A number of women at the ceremony said they turned to drugs as their husbands were addicts.
“I took on drug as my husband was using at home,” Naznin, a woman said.
“Bringing us here (for treatment) will have not results. When we leave here, again we will turn to drug as long as there are smugglers (and dealers). They should be stopped. It is the reality,” Marwa Musavi, another woman said.
Currently, there are at least 20 drug rehabilitation centers across the country that treat women and children. Officials have said however that there are not enough centers to treat women and children.
