Drugs in Afghanistan: Opium, Outlaws and Scorpion Tales

Everyone knows that Afghanistan is the center of the world's heroin trade. Afghanistan's poppy fields produce more heroin than all other countries combined. Most accounts of the drug trade concentrate on the impact of trafficking on the West. Yet the truth is that drug addiction is also a problem in Afghanistan. This book explores the devastating impact that the drug trade has had on the Afghan people.

David Macdonald has worked as an advisor on drugs to the United Nations and the Ministry of Counter Narcotics in Afghanistan for several years. Based on his extensive experience, this book breaks down the myths surrounding the cultivation, production, and consumption of drugs, providing a detailed analysis of the history of drug use within the country. He examines the impact of more than twenty-five years of continuous war and conflict and shows how continuing poverty and instability have led to an increase in drug consumption. He considers the recent rise in the use of pharmaceutical drugs that has resulted in dangerous chemical cocktails. Macdonald also analyzes the effect of Afghanistan's drug trade on neighboring countries.