Outstanding Documentaries: Kabul: Rehab Hell (2022)

 

It's been a while since I've bawled while watching a documentary.  Like, legit broken down and sobbed with tears running down my face.  I didn't expect a film about Afghani men to be such a tear-jerker but here we are.  Kabul: Rehab Hell by ARTE Tv, the award-winning European cultural public service channel, is both enraging & heartbreaking.  It does an amazing job of highlighting the universal nature of addiction & how the drug problem is made worse by draconian policies & corrupt, sadistic governments.  

The 23-minute piece opens in the streets of Kabul with Taliban strongmen chasing down suspected addicts and forcing them at gunpoint into a van.  Apparently this is how addicts are 'treated' in Afghanistan in regions where the Taliban run things.  From there they're patted down, shaved bald & begin their cold-turkey withdrawal in a giant prison warehouse full of hundreds of other men going through the same thing.  Medical care is minimal:  heart rate & blood pressure are taken but no medication is given to ease withdrawal symptoms.  In fact clinics are so underfunded there's not even enough food for all the patients, and the blankets are infested with fleas among other horrors.  

Baker mistaken for junkie by Taliban pleads for his life

Predictably, deaths do occur under these inhumane conditions.  Heroin addicts enduring cold turkey withdrawal can become dehydrated due to vomiting and diarrhea, which also happens in American prisons.  Some of these men are in for meth addiction though, which I found interesting.  (Seriously who knew METH was a thing in the Afghani desert?).  The camera pans out to show addict camps on the side of mountains that resemble American tent cities but much smaller.  Wives, who cannot legally divorce their husbands without their consent, are interviewed about their addictions & the cost to their families.  One woman recounts how her husband stole their TV, solar panels & other belongings to sell for drugs.  Even in the conservative Muslim city of Kabul, addiction is a "family disease".  

God "willed" their deaths by withdrawal-induced dehydration? 😑

Taliban leaders claim the drug problem grew exponentially under American rule in the previous 20 years which is entirely believable.  We've all seen the photos of U.S. soldiers protecting the poppy fields.  Ironically, Afghanistan is the world's heroin capital, producing around 85% of the opium used to make the drug.  And according to the addicts, the Taliban does nothing to go after the big-time dealers or growers.  This makes sense as opium is a major cash crop for the country.  It may be fine to sell to other infidel nations but they won't be caught dead with THEIR streets being littered with filthy addicts.  

We see similar corruption here in the States as drug addicts & small-time dealers consistently get harsh sentences while families like the Sacklers spend 0 days behind bars.  The parallels are striking:  one Taliban leader even states "We're going to eradicate drugs" which sounds a LOT like our "zero tolerance" and "Drug-Free America" rhetoric.  There's never been a drug-free society on the face of this planet, but there has been endless suffering due to prohibition & brutal violence-based methods like we see here.  Keeping drugs illegal creates a lucrative black market--something governments (and shadow governments like the CIA) around the world stand to profit from even if it kills some of their citizens. I have no doubt many of our lawmakers & police would treat addicts exactly like this if they could get away with it.  In some places they already are, we just don't see it because it happens in the bowels of prisons away from public view.  In one major Oklahoma jail, 16 inmates died in 2022 alone.  

Inmates yell out the truth as a doctor tries to give an interview

The personal stories of the addicts are the most touching parts of the documentary.  Watching them tremble, cry about what they've done to their children & talk about the lack of opportunities, jobs & community ties that led to their addictions is heartrending.  And entirely relatable.  That's the biggest strength of this movie:  its portrayal of addiction as a condition that truly is universal & causes the same issues regardless of who you are or where you're from.  Many people still view it as a self-inflicted 1st world problem but this doc disabuses you of that notion almost immediately.  Unfortunately, the hateful treatment of addicts is the same worldwide too, with everyone from business owners to children shunning & bullying these people on the street.  The most horrifying detail about this whole shebang is that addicts in Kabul treatment centers must wait until a loved one comes to free them from this hellhole.  The fact that some of them have no loved ones left matters not--they're left to rot there for months or indefinitely.  

Whether you're an addict, former addict or just someone who wants to learn more about the disease of addiction & how drug prohibition hurts more people than it helps, watch Kabul: Rehab Hell.  It also gives an unpoliticized look at life under the Taliban since the U.S. pulled out in 2021.  

Addicts stay in "treatment" until a loved one takes them out.