In Afghanistan, the opium trade touches nearly every corner of life. In rural provinces, families—often including young children—spend long days in poppy fields, carefully extracting raw sap from the plant’s pods.

This labor is seasonal, repetitive, and done with few tools or protections. In urban areas, the consequences of this trade are stark. Along riverbanks and in abandoned buildings, individuals gather to use heroin and other drugs.

Addiction has taken hold of many communities, overwhelming families and straining the few treatment centers that remain. Hospitals operate with limited resources, and recovery is often short-lived.

This photo series documents the wide scope of Afghanistan’s opium crisis—from cultivation in the countryside to addiction in the cities. It offers a glimpse into a cycle fueled by poverty, displacement, and decades of instability.

The images do not aim to judge, but to show the human cost of a drug economy that continues to shape lives across regions and generations, often in silence.