Ministry of Counter Narcotics (Afghanistan)

Ministry of Counter Narcotics
Pashto: د مخدره موادو پر ضد وزارت Persian: وزرت مبارزه عليه مواد مخدر
overview
Jurisdiction	Government of Afghanistan
Ministers responsible	• Ahmad Moqbel Zarar, Minister of Counter Narcotics  • Dr. Zafar, Deputy Minister for Policy and Coordination
Website
mcn.gov.af

The Ministry of Counter Narcotics (Pashto: د مخدره موادو پر ضد وزارت / Persian: وزرت مبارزه عليه مواد مخدر) is a Ministry within the government of Afghanistan. It is headed by Zarar Ahmad Moqbel.

The ministry leads the coordination, policy making, monitoring and evaluation of all counter-narcotics activities and efforts. All activities are carried out in view of the Constitution of Afghanistan, the Afghan Drug Law and Afghanistan's National Drug Control Strategy (NDCS).

The role of Minister of Counter Narcotics has been described as the world's toughest job ^[1].

Functions

Opium production in Afghanistan exceeds by far the opium produced in the rest of the world. The ministry has the lead on co-ordinating and evaluating the Afghan Drug Law and the NDCS.

The ministry has eight pillars of activity:

institution building law enforcement international and regional cooperation eradication

public awareness alternative livelihoods criminal justice demand reduction

There are four published priorities for activity:

1. Disrupting the drugs trade by targeting traffickers and their backers and eliminating the basis for the trade.
2. Strengthening and diversifying legal rural livelihoods.
3. Reducing the demand for illicit drugs and treatment of problem drug users.
4. Strengthening state institutions both at the centre and in the provinces The Government intends to spend the preponderance of its resources and energy on these four priority areas.

Ministers

• Minister of Counter Narcotics — Zarar Ahmad Moqbel
• Deputy Minister for Policy and Coordination — Dr. Zafar

References

1. ^ Zabriskie, Phil (30 September 2009). "Afghanistan's drug czar - world's toughest job". CNN. http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/29/news/international/afghanistan_taliban_drugs.fortune/index.htm. 

External links

• mcn.gov.af, official website