"It's rare to speak to an opium addict in Afghanistan whose habit didn't begin in Iran. They use ...

"It's rare to speak to an opium addict in Afghanistan whose habit didn't begin in Iran. They use it to relieve physical pain caused by the hard labour they travel to Iran, illegally, to find, and with it an income to feed their families. They use it to forget traumatic experiences in Afghanistan. Others pick up the habit because their friends are smoking. There is almost no understanding of the risk of addiction. At first, users say it relaxes them. Once they're hooked, though, they say it's their fuel, and that without it they're barely able to function. Nimruz Province, in Afghanistan's desert southwest, is where close to 100 percent of Afghan addicts are dumped by Iran after being arrested without travel documents. In Zaranj, Nimruz' capital, and only a few kilometres from the border with Iran, a block behind the city's main traffic circle, scores of addicts cram into empty shopfronts to smoke, day and night. Mid-level dealers in bright white perahan tunbuns scatter when a photographer and translator arrive but return when police show up in response to a dealer's call. They'd told the police we were stealing money from some of the addicts."