| Hans-Günter Meyer-Thompson | Illegal
Afghanistan. Meth and heroin fuel Afghanistan drugs boom
Afghanistan. Meth and heroin fuel Afghanistan drugs boom
(…) Drugs are big business in Afghanistan, and under the Taliban, trade is booming. The country has long been linked with heroin, but in recent years, it has also emerged as a significant producer of crystal meth - another dangerously addictive drug.
One source involved in the trade says that about 3,000kg of crystal meth are now manufactured every day by more than 500 makeshift "factories" in a single remote drug-producing district in the south-west of the country.
The rise of meth has been fuelled by a discovery that ephedra - a common, wild herb known locally as "oman" - can be used to make one of the drug's key ingredients: ephedrine. (BBC, UK, 12.12.2021)