. According to a United Nations report released in 2011, 90 per cent of the world's opium, the raw materiel from which heroin is made, is produced in Afghanistan. The illicit trade plagues efforts to rebuild the war-ravaged nation and helps finance insurgent groups. Nevertheless, poppy cultivation remains the only viable cash crop for many of Afghanistan's poor farmers. The drug is smuggled to wealthy countries in the West, leaving a trail of devastated lives along the way. Eighty five per cent of Afghanistan's poppy production is grown in five provinces along the border with Pakistan. The remote, porous borders between the two countries make Pakistan the main staging area for the exportation of heroin from Afghanistan to the rest of the world. The consequence of the trade for Pakistan is more than four million heroin addicts. Conflict, poverty, illiteracy and a weak economy all exacerbate the burgeoning problem. However, Pakistan's educated middle classes are also severely affected. A dollar will buy enough heroin to stay high for an entire day, but few resources are available to prevent narcotics trafficking or to treat the victims of Pakistan's enormous heroin addiction crisis. On-going political and economic instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan and a lack of resources for social services, health care, education and development have encouraged the global narcotics trade and perpetuated a spiralling cycle of drug addiction in the region. Heroin Addiction Pakistan by JB Russell Some shocking images within this article Afghan heroin addicts from the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif live and use drugs in a cemetary. Afghanistan is the world's largest poppy producer and exports the vast majority of the heroin and opium on the world market. Quetta, Pakistan. Drug addicts smoke heroin in a cave located in a cemetary.  Many of the addicts are Afghan refugees.  Quetta, Pakistan. Drug addicts smoke and inject heroin under a bridge along a sewage canal.  Quetta, Pakistan. Drug addicts smoke heroin under a bridge in a sewage canal. Quetta, Pakistan. Drug addicts smoke heroin under a bridge along a sewage canal. Quetta, Pakistan. Drug addicts smoke heroin under an overpass along an open sewage canal in the city center. Some of the addicts are Afghan refugees who fall into drug use due to conflict and misery. Others are poor Pakistanis who escape poverty and the lack of economic prospects through drug use. Yet cheap, readily available heroin and a conservative society that forbids many public forms of ‘enertainment’ have drawn a large number of people from Pakistan's educated middle classes into drug addiction. Quetta, Pakistan. A drug addict nods after smoking heroin under a bridge beside a sewage canal in the city center.  Quetta, Pakistan. Drug addicts prepare and inject heroin under a bridge along an open sewage canal in the city center. The narcotics trade from Afghanistan, through Pakistan, has caused a severe heroin addiction crisis in the country. Quetta, Pakistan. Drug addicts injecting heroin under a bridge along a sewage canal. Sanitary conditions for the addicts are deplorable and the health consequences of drug use, such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis, are rampant.   Quetta, Pakistan. A heroin addict with a wound from excessive intravenous drug use sits along a sewage canal in the city center. Quetta, Pakistan. Heroin addicts sleeping along an open sewage canal where they live and use drugs in the city center. Quetta, Pakistan. A heroin addict from Afghanistan who has been sitting in this same spot for the past 8 months winces in pain as a social worker changes the dressing on a serious infection the addict has developed on his leg, the result of repeatedly injecting drugs into the same place. Few resources are available for treatment and prevention of heroin addiction in Pakistan. Quetta, Pakistan. Heroin addicts recovering at the Milo Shaheed Trust.  The private center assists addicts to become clean and with follow up therapy. The addicts or their families must pay a fee of Rs. 2750 ($45) per month to cover food and medicine expenses, a sum that puts the program beyond the reach of many of the worst drug addiction cases. Pakistan is woefully lacking in government programs and social services that address the growing heroin addiction problem in the country. Quetta, Pakistan. Heroin addicts recovering at the Milo Shaheed Trust. Quetta, Pakistan. A heroin addict in withdrawl at the Milo Shaheed Trust. Quetta, Pakistan. A drug addict smokes heroin under a bridge along a sewage canal. The few drug addiction cases that enter rehabilitation programs often return to the streets and heroin use once they are released or can no longer afford the fees necessary to remain in the programs. Quetta, Pakistan. A heroin addict sleeps in a grave yard where he lives and uses drugs. Conflict, political instability, corruption, poverty and narcotics traffiking have caused a disaterous heroin addiction crisis in the region. Quetta, Pakistan. Back to current issue