PAKISTANI DRUG ADDICTS AWAIT AFGHAN CROP

KARACHI, Pakistan - Murad Ali injects Valium into his left arm in broad
daylight near an open sewer in Karachi, cursing his fate for not being able
to afford the stronger stuff he craves - heroin.

Ali, an addict in his late 20s, hasn't been able to afford heroin for the
past year, largely because of a steep jump in prices after Afghanistan
(news - web sites)'s hardline Taliban regime all but eliminated poppy
production in the last year of its reign.

But, heroin production is rising in Afghanistan following the ouster of the
Taliban, despite efforts by the new government to crack down on production.
This year - after the best poppy harvest in 18 months - Afghanistan is
again expected to be the world's No. 1 producer of opium with a harvest of
more than 4,000 tons, according to a U.N. survey.

But that heroin still hasn't been processed, and it hasn't reached the
streets of Karachi.

About 1.5 grams of low-quality heroin powder now sells for up to $1.60 on
Karachi streets, up from 35 cents a year ago. While cheap by Western
standards, it's a lot of money for Pakistan's poor.

"The stuff is hardly coming, and at a high price too," said a Karachi drug
pusher operating in the old neighborhood of Lyari. He spoke on condition
his name not be used.

Authorities say they have helped keep prices high by aggressively stopping
cross-border trafficking, but they acknowledge they don't stop all of it.

"Afghanistan has a bumper poppy crop this year," said Brigadier Liaquat
Toor of the army-led Anti Narcotics Force of Pakistan. "This is going to
affect Pakistan."

Added Ejaz Hashmi, a police official involved in anti-narcotics efforts in
Karachi: "Very strict vigilance is going on at the border and security
agencies at several level are operating. Trafficking has been curbed to a
great extent, but it can't be stopped altogether."

Pakistan is not only a key route for the international narcotics smuggling
from Afghanistan, but is also a big market - with its estimated four
million drug addicts.

It is also a poppy producer, despite a massive crackdown on farmers in the
country's lawless tribal region neighboring Afghanistan.

In 2001, Pakistan managed to wipe out poppy cultivation, but high market
prices of drugs attracted many farmers to resume production of the banned
crop, said Thomas Zeindil, Pakistan's chief of the United Nations (news -
web sites) Drug Control Program, or UNDCP,.

"Onions and vegetables cannot get them (farmers) the price they can get
from poppy," Zeindil said.

Salim Azam, a doctor in Karachi, said high production of opium and heroin
in Afghanistan could have a silver lining for Pakistani addicts - who have
increasingly been sharing syringes to cut costs, leading to an alarming
rise in diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS (news - web sites).

Azam, of the Pakistan Society, an aid organization engaged in addict
rehabilitation, said many addicts have switched to injectable tranquilizers
or sedatives easily available on the local market.

"This is one positive aspect I am seeing in the high production of opium
and heroin in Afghanistan," he said. "We can treat and rehabilitate the
heroin addicts but the spread of hepatitis is more dangerous."