Afghan police to expand drug testing program
Crime 1 in 3 recruits uses heroin

By McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Published: October 6, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan — If his job doesn’t kill him, the heroin might.

Mohammad Akbar is a first lieutenant in the highly touted Afghan National Army, considered crucial to the future of this war-torn country. But for three years, Akbar has also been shooting up heroin.

"Pressure made me an addict,” said Akbar, 25, who is married.

Drug abuse is an increasing problem not just for Afghanistan, which produces most of the world’s heroin, but for the very men charged with protecting the country and enforcing the nation’s drug laws as a Taliban-led insurgency escalates.

Many Afghans blame the police especially for corruption and involvement in the drug trade. But experts say the problem also exists in the army, and soldiers themselves confirm it, even though drug use in the security forces has long been a taboo subject for the government.

Recent tests show as many as 1 in 3 of the tested police and police recruits use drugs. The figure shows just how pervasive drug abuse is and highlights the state of the Afghan police, many of whom use drugs to cope with the stress of facing Taliban-led militants.

These tests are the first time that police and recruits have been tested for drugs. The testing program will soon be expanded, and, eventually, any police officer who tests positive for drugs will be kicked out, officials said.

Gen. Zaher Azimi, the spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said addicts are treated at army hospitals. He blamed drug use in the army on the fact that soldiers are being relied on for non-army duties.

He also said most Afghans did not consider marijuana to be a drug.

"We can hardly find anyone who hasn’t smoked hashish in Afghanistan,” Azimi said. "But we are working on that.”

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