Taliban Not Keeping Promises of Drug Control in Afghanistan, Says Tajik Official

Habibullo Vohidzoda, Director of the Drug Control Agency in Tajikistan, said that the Taliban is not acting according to their repeated statements of stepping up their counter-narcotics efforts.

Vohidzoda added that according to the country’s statistics, drug smuggling from Afghanistan has increased during the Taliban reign in the country.

On Wednesday, in a press conference in Dushanbe, he said that he does not believe in the Taliban's promises of fighting against drugs in Afghanistan.

The Tajik official explained that the Taliban had promised to crack down on those who produce and smuggle drugs, "but in reality, we don't see that happening”.

Vohidzoda added that in 2021 and after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, 4083 kilograms of narcotics had been discovered in Tajikistan, and in 2022 almost five tonnes of narcotics were seized in the country.

He stressed that most of the seized drugs were in the areas inside Tajikistan which bordered Afghanistan.

In 2022, the Taliban announced a ban on the production and sale of drugs in Afghanistan.

However, earlier the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime announced that Afghanistan produced 80 percent of the world's opium in 2022. The report stated that Afghanistan has become one of the major producers of methamphetamine or crystal in the region.