DUSHANBE, July 3, 2010, Asia-Plus — The drug situation in Afghanistan and on the Tajik-Afghan border will remain complex within the next several years because some 7,000 tons of raw opium were produced in this country last year, which is 95 percent of the global production of illegal opium, Tajik Security Council Secretary Amirqul Azimov remarked at the 8th session of the heads of anti-drug agencies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member nations in Dushanbe on July 2.
According to him, the production of opiates has doubled over the past decade and Afghanistan is the world’s largest opium producer. “This poses threat not only to Tajikistan and the countries neighboring it, this poses serious threat to the considerable part of Europe and America as well,” Azimov said.
The Tajik Security Council secretary noted that the drug threat emanating from Afghanistan and its negative impact on the region required further strengthening of the anti-drug cooperation within the CSTO area and joining of efforts of international community in that direction.
“To counter this evil on a global scale it is necessary to fight not only the drug trafficking, it is also necessary to deal with social factors that give rise to the drug trafficking. These factors are poverty, inequality and corruption.”
Tajikistan stands in first place among CIS states in terms of the amount of contraband drug seized and in fourth place globally, Azimov stressed, noting that more than 64 tons of narcotics with more than 30 tons of them being heroin, have been seized in Tajikistan over the past decade. “If to analyze, this saved more than 36 million lives from drug dependence,” he added.
Tajik Security Council secretary also noted that young people and rising generation have become the main target of the drug threat in recent years. “Over the past eight years, the world has lost almost 1 million young people under the age of 35,” he said.
