heroin state

Do dolls smoke? “No,” answers the youngest girl, 6-year-old Jamila: “They have no right. This is not good". None of the sisters go to school. Their parents are peasants who, after several successive droughts, have lost everything. Their age is from 6 to 18 years. They use heroin daily while helping to collect opium poppies in the Herat region of Afghanistan. Sometimes, risking their lives, they work as "mules" to smuggle drugs into Iran. Thirty years of war, lack of infrastructure, and family ties in a corrupt state are preventing farmers from considering switching to other crops. Heroin here costs as little as $1 per gram and is easy to buy in the provinces of Herat, Farah and Nimroz, as they are located on the traffic route between Afghanistan and Iran. For addicts, buying pure heroin is more important than buying food.

(Total 27 photos)

1. Tariq, 11, and his 14-year-old brother, Hamid, show heroin capsules they plan to smuggle into Iran. Boys swallow 5 to 7 capsules of 5 grams. They cross the border with adults and then give them the capsules using a laxative. Children are used in the drug trade because they arouse less suspicion and sometimes receive lighter penalties if caught.

2. 16-year-old Ehsan was arrested in the city of Herat for drug use. Like many others, he started in Iran as a laborer. He was then deported because he did not have a visa. In a juvenile prison, he will have to stop taking drugs, since there is no way to buy them.

3. 11-year-old Farzana shows a crystal, very pure heroin, which she smokes 2 or 3 times a day. She says that if she does not use heroin for at least one day, she feels pain all over her body. Her parents went to beg in the city and left her and her 7-year-old sister with drugs to have a peaceful day. Drug addiction among children is widespread in Afghanistan because there is a strong belief that opium is a medicine. 30 years of war have made Afghanistan a narco-state.

4. Obeid injects himself with heroin at a cemetery in the city of Herat. He started in Iran before being deported for staying illegally. The young man says that he is 18 years old, but many underage drug addicts lie about their age in order to get into prison where they can get "adult" drugs. In juvenile prisons, prisoners are forced to stop taking drugs, as it is very difficult to smuggle heroin.

5. 9-year-old Mahdiye after smoking heroin. She smokes it at least 3 times a day and uses very pure Afghan-made heroin, also known as crystal. She says she is addicted and wants to quit, but the hospital is far and expensive. There is a strong belief in Afghanistan that opium is a medicine. The Mahdiyeh family lives on the border with Iran, where half of the opium and heroin trade takes place and very cheap heroin can be found.

6. 9-year-old Mahdiye and her 11-year-old cousin Rafik smoke crystal, very pure heroin. Mahdiye says that when he does not use heroin for one day, he feels pain in his legs. She started taking the drug 2 years ago with her parents, who are also drug addicts.

7. A child weeds a poppy field from weeds in the remote province of Badakhshan in the northeast. Opium production in the region more than doubled in 2011, according to UNODC, the United Nations Organization on Drugs and Crime.

8. A man pierces a poppy box in Badakhshan province, northeast Afghanistan.

9. Opium is collected in an aluminum container. A farmer can easily earn $7,000 from 50 sq. meters of poppy field.

10. Afghan farmers collect opium poppy to get opium latex, used to make heroin, which is sold in Western countries.

11. Poppy field in the province of Badakhshan during the season.

12. View of the cemetery of the city of Herat, where drug addicts often gather and even sleep at night.

13. Two men inject heroin into their groins because all their veins are damaged. Since 2001, the number of heroin addicts has increased dramatically. Heroin is cheap since it is made from opium grown in Afghanistan.

14. Drug addicts inject themselves with heroin at the cemetery.

15. Mojda Gul's husband was killed in Iran after being caught smuggling 250 grams of heroin. She now works for a small organization where she tells other women that they must keep their husbands out of the opium trade. Iran has a tough drug control policy. Most smugglers are sentenced to death and will be hanged. The family must pay for the rope to get the body back for burial.

16. 12-year-old Samir shows 7 capsules of heroin, which he is going to swallow. Heroin is called a crystal because of its purity. He travels to Iran with 7-8 capsules inside and then uses laxatives. He hands them over to a merchant on the other side of the border. If the capsules are damaged, he will die from a heroin overdose.

17. 40-year-old Ahmad smokes opium in the house next to his son, 6-year-old Vaes. In Afghanistan, opium is considered a medicine. Parents often treat their children with opium when they cannot afford to pay the doctor. Ahmad says he married his 14-year-old daughter to get money through dowry. His wife, also a drug addict, complains that all the money went to buy opium.

18. 12-year-old Samir shows 7 capsules of heroin, which he is about to swallow.

19. Badakhshan drug police destroy fields of opium poppy planted a few weeks before. Farmers complain that they have few alternatives to earn a living.

20. 30-year-old Daoud Mohammed became addicted to heroin. His mother has chained his legs so that he cannot go out and buy drugs.

21. Narcotics police search cars and trucks at a checkpoint set up outside the city of Herat. Only 1% of drug trafficking remains inside Afghanistan, according to UNODC.

22. 11-year-old Rafik and his 7-year-old sister Soyla drive up to the border crossing point with Iran. They travel 12 km in the trunk of a car to reach the Iranian border crossing point and beg. There were 13 people in the car.

23. Children carry the baggage of passengers who have arrived in Iran or are leaving it. For drug smugglers, children play the role of mules, as they arouse less suspicion and demand less money.

24. Soeyla asks for alms from travelers traveling to or from Iran. He and his brother can earn up to $4 a day. The family will spend this money on a crystal, pure heroin made in Afghanistan.

25. 7-year-old Jamila smokes crystal, pure heroin.

26. 11-year-old Rafik and his 10-year-old cousin Mir Aga smoke crystal, very pure heroin, sometimes mixed with amphetamines. Drugs produced in Afghanistan quickly become addictive. Agha says he tried to stop five times.

27. 11-year-old Farzana plays with a doll after using pure heroin.