• Lifting the veil on Afghanistan's female addicts

    Left: A drug addict in Kabul smokes for an additional kick after injecting himself with heroin, Aug. 2007. Image: Saurabh Das / AP
    Right: An Afghan woman holds up opium as she attends a counseling session at the Nejat drug rehabilitation center, Jan. 2012. Image: Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    Reuters reports: Anita lifted the sky-blue burqa from her face, revealing glazed eyes and cracked lips from years of smoking opium, and touched her saggy belly, still round from giving birth to her seventh child a month ago.

    "I can't give breast milk to my baby," said the 32-year-old Anita, "I'm scared he'll get addicted.”

    Left: Male drug addicts sit in the detox room at the Kabul Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, Sept. 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Image: Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
    Right: Female drug addicts visit the Nejat drug rehabilitation center in Kabul, Jan. 2012. Image: Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    While it is not uncommon to see men shooting up along the banks of the dried up Kabul riverbed in broad daylight, women in the ultra-conservative culture of Muslim Afghanistan are expected to stay out of public view for the most part. They often have to seek permission from a male relative or husband to leave their home, and when they do they are encased in the head-to-toe burqa.

    No estimates are available on how many women are addicted to opium or heroin. Nejat estimates around 60,000 women in Afghanistan regularly take illegal drugs, including hashish and marijuana. Full story

    Left: An Afghan drug addict smokes heroin in the city of Ghazni west of Kabul, Afghanistan. Aug. 2007. Image: Musadeq Sadeq / AP
    Right: A woman addict sits cross-legged during a counseling session at the Nejat drug rehabilitation center, Jan. 2012. Image: Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    Left: An Afghan policeman stands behind a pile of burning illegal narcotics in Kabul, April 2009.
    Right: A drug addict waits for her turn to see doctors at the Nejat drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, Jan. 2012. Images: Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    Left: Afghan farmers work in an opium poppy field in Nawa district of Helmand province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, April 2009. Image: Abdul Khaleq / AP
    Right: A drug addict holds her child as she visits the Nejat drug rehabilitation center, Jan. 2012. Image: Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    Left: A doctor gives advice to a new detox patient in the Nejat detox program at the Kabul Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, Sept. 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Image: Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
    Right: An Afghan doctor explains the use of condoms to a group of women addicts at a counseling session at the Nejat drug rehabilitation center, Jan. 2012. Ahmad Masood / Reuters

    More photos from Afghanistan on PhotoBlog

    PhotoBlog: Saffron replacing heroin?

    More photos from Afghanistan in our slideshow: Nation at a crossroads

  • Bayu Aji / EPA

    8-year-old Aldi Ilham smoking a cigarette at his house in Sukabumi, Indonesia, on March 13, 2012 in a picture made available today. Ilham started smoking when he was four years old and now smokes around 20 cigarettes a day. Reports state that one in three people smoke in Indonesia. Aldi Ilham has been admitted to a facility for rehabilitation.

    Bloomberg charity pledges $220 million to combat 'scourge' of smoking

    Reuters reports — Michael Bloomberg's charitable foundation will commit $220 million over the next four years to fight tobacco use globally, including for the funding of legal challenges against the industry.

    Calling tobacco "a scourge all over the world" and accusing cigarette makers of "nefarious activities," the New York City mayor said at a news conference that his foundation will focus on low and moderate-income countries where nearly 80 percent of smokers live, like Russia, China, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

    Smoking could kill about 1 billion people this century, authors of the fourth edition of the Tobacco Atlas said at the book's launch in Singapore on Wednesday. The book is published by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation. Continue reading.