Afghanistan is the world’s largest opium producer, and efforts to stem this unfortunate status have failed miserably. In a new investigative documentary, “Afghanistan Overdose,” reporters for the news agency RT set out to determine the current state of their opium trade and what is being done to curb their continued dominance of the region.
From the beginning of their journey into the country, viewers get a tactile sense of danger and fear. Many local residents strongly resist the existence of reporting teams and often demand payment to ensure their cooperation.
Your first stop is Pole Sokhta, a concentration camp for the most oppressed opiate addicts in the region. Onlookers stood above them, watching them with curiosity and horror. Some of them testified that such a public display would have been unthinkable not so long ago when the region was under Taliban rule.
We have witnessed the tactics of local authorities raiding pharmacies and raiding terrified citizens. Small quantities of opium were confiscated from the suspects. Some stash the product in their shoes, while others fill up the nearly empty gas tanks of their cars with tightly packed lumps.
We walk into a rehabilitation clinic and hear about the challenges faced by the doctors who work there. Her first hurdle was convincing drug addicts to enroll in her treatment services – which included 15 days of trauma-related withdrawal. After a six-week recovery period, they help them find decent work and an outdoor lifestyle to avoid a relapse.
Afghanistan’s opioid epidemic has repercussions far beyond the efforts of individual drug users or local law enforcement. Trade also affects the lives of citizens in other parts of the world and fuels and finances the activities of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State.
In 2001, the United States pledged $7 billion to help eradicate the opium industry in the country. Yet the size and importance of the Afghan poppy fields continue to flourish year after year. Many of the reasons for this are frustratingly elusive, but they are at the heart of this powerful film.
