Afghanistan's growing number of child drug addicts

Jalalabad, Feb 11 (AFP) They play badminton, kick a ball around and huddle over computer games just like normal children. Except that they are recovering drug addicts aged around three to 12, representing a growing proportion of drug users in war-torn Afghanistan. In response, increasing numbers of rehabilitation centres are weaning such children off their addiction and giving them a new appetite for life in a country that produces 90 percent of the world's opium used to make heroin. While there are no statistics for kids, the rate of relapse is high for their parents, experts say. For now two young girls, dressed in a blue uniform and playing badminton, and a group of boys playing football are all active and healthy -- the total opposite of when they arrived. "When I see them for the first time, the kids are depressed, unhappy. They don't play actively, they don't care about hygiene," said care assistant Massouma Khatima. "They're like ghosts," added one of her colleagues. The centre, run by Afghan charity Wadan, which is partly funded by the United Nations, offers 25 children and 35 women the chance to get clean. Those who suffer from diarrhea, constipation or headaches as a side effect from addiction are given medical treatment. More hardened addicts among the adults are treated with hydrotherapy -- in this case mostly cold showers. Marwa, 10, is one of the girls who has recently recovered. Now she dares to dream of becoming an engineer, a fairly remote prospect for a girl from a poor community where few women are educated. "I've been taking sleeping pills since I was a baby... I was drowsy and feeling asleep. I always had headaches. I couldn't learn. My friends were learning faster. They were also laughing at me, calling me 'sleepy'," she says. "Now, I feel better, but not completely OK. I feel I can learn to play," she adds. Fazalwahid Tahiri, the centre's administrator, says that in the eastern province of Nangarhar, sleeping pills can be mixed with milk for kids. But children are more commonly given a highly addictive broth made from opium, doled out as a remedy for flu and stomach aches. "Since opium is easily available, some don't even think of it as drug addiction. They use it as a pain killer," he said. In Afghanistan, most children become addicts as a result of their parents -- passively inhaling their fathers' opium smoke in the house, says Zarbadshah Jabarkhail, a doctor with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). (AFP) SOM 02111541 NNNN