Kabul: Rehab Hell | ARTE.tv Documentary

thank you [Music] [Music] foreign foreign drug addicts in the street of the Afghan capital [Music] s [Music] ever since They seized power again in August 2021 the Taliban has been cracking down on all addicts real or presumed [Music] everybody in present-day Kabul the hunt for drug addict has become a part of daily life in poor neighborhoods foreign [Music] thank you these men are among the hundreds of homeless heroin addicts haunting the streets of Kabul the Taliban have means all their own to combat this epidemic they arrest thousands of people merely for looking like addicts and forced them through Rehabilitation programs [Music] [Music] thank you in the 90s when the Taliban was running the country growing poppy was forbidden and using it harshly punished after regaining power the Islamic fundamentalists reinstated the ban this Clinic is a former U.S military base in 2016 it was turned into a rehabilitation center it can house as many as one thousand patients for stays lasting 45 days ever since the taliban's return this Rehabilitation Center has been constantly full to this day Afghanistan Remains the world's largest opium producer and back in the day as members of the resistance the Taliban earned millions of dollars through the heroin trade this windfall enabled them to fund their Rebellion is [Music] going forward growing and selling narcotics is also forbidden and penalized foreign however Western sanctions and the economic chaos they bring about might make it difficult for these fundamentalists to deny themselves this source of Revenue these recently detained men are at the beginning of 45 days of Torment with no painkillers or replacement products forced withdrawal is going to be debilitatingly painful most of the patients crammed in here are also ill and underfed [Music] um foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] deterrence through deprivation is the only method the Taliban use deprived of Assistance or replacement products these Afghan addicts must endure this iron-fisted therapy [Music] foreign foreign but follow us [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] the addicts are detained in the rehabilitation center the first two weeks are harrowing and they won't all survive in order to minimize the number of deaths the staff checks the patient's heart rate before sending them to rehab [Music] the goal is to filter out all those whose bodies are unlikely to make it through the shock of withdrawal in Afghanistan 40 Years of conflict poverty unemployment and post-war trauma have caused millions of people to succumb to substance abuse out of 39 million people an estimated three to five million Afghan people are addicted to drugs in a country that's been undergoing massive economic collapse an unprecedented humanitarian disaster and exceptional unemployment rates ever since the fundamentalists regained control these circumstances encouraged the use of drugs which can at times be a group activity taking place atop some of the city's Hills where heroin and crystal meth are bought and sold out in the open [Music] ing we get there um [Applause] in Afghanistan most women depend on their husbands financially thus the wives of addicts are left to their own devices in a society where women essentially lack the right to have a job or get a divorce is [Music] foreign [Music] okay [Music] [Music] still alive but completely weakened the impatience of the rehabilitation center lack food due to the insufficient budget [Music] as if to further illustrate the economic chaos devastating the country staff at the center haven't been paid for eight months just like most of the country's public servants since the talibans returned to power foreign [Music] foreign foreign who fought the Taliban in the 90s before joining their ranks today he's also a former addict who turned to drug use during the Civil War foreign when the Taliban seized the capital in August 2021 the rehab centers employees fled returning home Barbara alone remained in order to protect the patient whose Agony he knows so well [Music] foreign after two weeks strict and painful withdrawal the patients are transferred to a rehabilitation center from which they'll officially be released after 30 days neither of us [Music] [Music] foreign because [Music] the rules instituted by the Taliban stipulate that no patience will be released unless their families make the trip over to pick them up parents must also guarantee that their children won't relapse many addicts however have lost all contact with their families and can end up spending weeks if not months interned in this Rehabilitation Center [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] service it grows that's emotional mother body cheers foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] so that's what [Music] drugs have upended the lives of countless people in Afghanistan and countless more are fighting to prevent their loved ones from falling into this trap but with the country and the grips of rampant unemployment and full economic collapse many see drugs as their only way out often relatives have no choice but to sell off their things in order to pay for their loved ones treatment in some cases rehab is successful but the relapse rate remains High foreign [Music] as long as drug trafficking remains one of the Taliban government's few Revenue sources fighting drug addiction effectively is going to be impossible foreign foreign the War on Drugs is far from being one and through the heavy toll they're taking on The Afghan population the sanctions levied by the International Community are likely going to make things worse [Music] [Music]

Channel: ARTE.tv Documentary

Views: 6,734,407

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Id: jXZNKjElHcU

Length: 24min 44sec (1484 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 03 2022