Afghanistan: Kabul Heroin Smokers

There are over 200,000 heroin and opium users in Afghanistan. This series of photographs documents young men in Kabul who are living homeless in a structure built by the Russians to house operas, ballets and music concerts. The building was decimated during tribal fighting of the Afghan civil war and sometimes shelters as many as 400 addicts. Most of these men have the same story of addiction--they illegally enter Iran to work in fields or weave carpets or do other back-breaking labor and became addicted when they started smoking opium to ease their physical pains. Deportation inevitably forces them back to Afghanistan where they travel to Kabul desperate as full blown addicts begging and stealing to buy more opium. There isn't much hope or help and many health officials fear that more addicts will start using the drug intravenously, a more dangerous and cheaper route, as eradication efforts threaten to drive up the street price.