KABUL): Second-Vice President Mohammad Karim Khalili on Tuesday acknowledged that efforts to combat drug trade and arrest and punish those involved had been far from satisfactory.
Khalili, who inaugurated a 300-bed drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, said it was a harsh reality that young Afghans developed the habit of taking drugs and their number increased on a daily basis.
He asked judicial and security organs to do more to arrest and punish drug smugglers and called on media outlets to broadcasts programmes explaining the hazardous effects of drug use on health.
Public Health Minister Dr. Soraya Dalil linked the increasing number of addicts to poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. She said one million Afghans used drugs.
myn/ma
