For centuries, Afghans in impoverished rural areas have used opium to relieve pain and induce sleep.
Now, a severe shortage of medication fueled by a health-care crisis has forced Afghans to resort to opium to treat common illnesses.
Opium remains readily available across Afghanistan, one of the world's largest producers of narcotics, despite the Taliban banning the cultivation, production, and trafficking of all illicit drugs in April 2022.
The growing number of Afghans using opium as a remedy for colds, stomachaches, and headaches could compound the drug epidemic in the country, health experts warn.
Afghanistan is home to around 4 million drugs users, or some 10 percent of the total population, according to the United Nations.
Afghan men wait to be released from a drug-rehabilitation center in Kabul. (file photo)
"I'm not the only one who uses opium as medicine," Homayoon, a young man from the northern province of Baghlan, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "Many in our region do the same."
Homayoon, who only gave his first name, says he smokes opium to treat the common cold and flu. "We don't have any health-care facilities here in our village, so what choice do we have?" he asked.
'Opium For Medicinal Purposes'
Afghanistan's heath-care system, propped up by foreign aid for nearly two decades, has been in free fall since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. International donors immediately cut financial funding and imposed sanctions on the new Taliban government.
Hundreds of health facilities have been shut down in the past two years, with no funds to pay the salaries of doctors and nurses. Hospitals that are still open suffer from severe shortages of medicine.
Some of the losses have been offset by the continued involvement of foreign aid organizations. But many of them have been forced to limit their operations as international funding recedes.
Afghan health professionals say they have seen a rise in the use of narcotics, including opium, crystal meth, and cannabis, to treat common illnesses.
A farmer in Kandahar shows fresh raw opium he has collected from poppy buds.
Rahmatullah, a doctor based in Kabul who only gave his first name, says the lack of health care facilities and medicine has forced people, especially in rural areas, to turn to illicit drugs to treat illnesses like diarrhea, sore throats, and insomnia.
"But the repeated use of opium for medicinal purposes leads to addiction," he told Radio Azadi, revealing that many of his patients have become addicted to the drug.
Abdul Basit Karim, a doctor in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, said the shortage of "sufficiently staffed and equipped" medical facilities was the main reason Afghans are turning to narcotics.
'Massive Funding Shortage'
International organizations operating in the country have been forced to cut their assistance to Afghans in the fields of health care and food aid in recent months, largely due to funding shortages.
The UN World Food Program in September cut emergency assistance to millions of vulnerable Afghans because of a "massive funding shortage."
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross stopped funding 25 hospitals across Afghanistan on August 31, citing a lack of resources.
The UN estimates that more than 28 million Afghans, or over two-thirds of the country's population of 40 million, need humanitarian assistance.
"The situation in Afghanistan is grave, and the lack of resources and funding to support health workers and facilities is putting countless lives at risk," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in August.
That includes drug rehabilitation facilities, many of which do not have enough basic medicine, food, and clothes for patients. Many centers have closed or are struggling to remain open since the Taliban takeover.
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Afghan Rehab Centers Failing Drug Addicts After Taliban Takeover
The Taliban has taken an extremely hard line in tackling Afghanistan's massive drug problem, rounding up addicts and locking them up for months as a form of treatment. But critics have said the cold-turkey approach is cruel and ineffective, and many addicts find themselves back on the streets soon after their forced detox is over.
Safia, a woman living in Kabul, says she used opium to treat a chronic toothache. But after several weeks of use, she became addicted.
"I took some opium with tea at night," she told Radio Azadi. "But my dependence on the drug continued."