Taxi driver to highlight poppy danger to fellow Afghans (From Swindon Advertiser)

Taxi driver to highlight poppy danger to fellow Afghans

10:40am Sunday 18th October 2009

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By Ben Perrin »

A TAXI driver plans to visit his homeland to educate people about the dangers of drugs and offer them information on growing alternative crops to opium poppies.

Ruh-Ul-Amin Shirzad, 36, of County Road, in the town centre, intends to visit a number of provinces in Afghanistan later this year.

The father-of-one will speak to locals about opium poppy cultivation and educate people on what impact this has on their and other people’s lives.

Afghanistan produces about 90 per cent of the world’s opium, which is used to make the class-A drug heroin.

The trip is part of Mr Shirzad’s industrial rural development course he is studying at Cirencester College.

He will use the information and reaction as part of a thesis he has to produce by September next year.

Mr Shirzad, who drives for private Swindon hire car firm V-Cars, said: “They are faced with either getting involved in this cultivation to fund the feeding of their families or not being able to do so.

“It’s a tough decision they have to make. I want to go out there some time this year and educate them about crop rotation and harvesting.

“This will be to help them find alternative crops to grow such as wheat and show them how to manage it.”

He said wheat could earn their growers almost as much as they would by cultivating poppies although convincing farmers to try a new crop would not be easy as many have never grown anything other than poppies..

Opium production still remains the largest cash crop in Afghanistan, being a big source of income for farmers and the drug traffickers who buy it.

Mr Shirzad will visit Laghman, Kunar, Helmand Province and a number of other towns in Afghanistan.

He said one million Afgan people suffer from heroin addiction out of 25 million people throughout the world.

“When people cultivate poppies many of them get addicted,” he said.

“This is another reason why I want to educate about the dangers. I plan to go there from a month up to six weeks.”

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