On Friday, the heads of Drug Control Agencies of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan met in Dushanbe and discussed the prospects for fighting against drug trafficking along the northern route

Among the participants were Afghanistan’s Deputy Interior Minister Baz Mohammad Ahmady and Deputy Minister for Counter-Narcotics Muhammad Azhar, director of Tajikistan’s Drug Control Agency Rustam Nazarov and deputy head of the Kyrgyz government’s Drug Control Agency Daniyar Otorbaev. Jean-Luc Lemahieu, UNODC Country Representative in Afghanistan, also attended the meeting.
 
The officials agreed on working out joint measures to fight against drug trafficking through the Afghan-Tajik and Tajik-Kyrgyz borders and admitted the need to promote sharing experience and information and carry out operations simultaneously. Moreover, Tajikistan expressed readiness to set up a regional centre for fighting against drug-trafficking in Dushanbe. 

Addressing the gathering Baz Mohammad Ahmady emphasized that anti-drug efforts must not be limited to countering the supply of banned materials. “There are 10 million drug addicts in the region, and as long as there are drug addicts, demand will remain high and joint work must be carried out to cut the demand,” he added.

Jean-Luc Lemahieu said that in 2012, there would be an increase in the volume of drug trafficking along the northern route as well as a growth in drug production as the opium price will remain high. He warned that UNODC’s activity in the region would be curbed after 2014.

The new anti-drug structure is known as AKT (Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan). A decision was taken to hold a meeting of the heads of the Drug Control Agencies twice a year. The next meeting will be timed to the arrival of the UN Deputy Secretary General in Dushanbe in June.