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FOCUS © FRANCE 24 05:10 Issued on: 19/02/2026 - 12:36Modified: 19/02/2026 - 12:40
From the show Reading time 1 min Long considered a transit route, Pakistan is now emerging as a major hub for both drug production and consumption. This shift follows the upheaval triggered by the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
A year later, the new Afghan authorities abruptly banned the cultivation of poppy, the raw material used to produce opium and heroin. The decision led to a dramatic collapse in Afghan output. Cultivation quickly moved across the border into Pakistan’s Balochistan province, which has, in just a few years, become one of the region's new centres of illegal poppy farming.
At the same time, Afghan trafficking networks have pivoted heavily toward synthetic drugs. As a result, methamphetamine produced in Afghanistan is now flooding the Pakistani market.
This expanding drug economy is having direct and devastating consequences for Pakistani society, where millions are now battling addiction.
FRANCE 24's Shahzaib Wahlah and Ondine de Gaulle report from Karachi.
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