(CNN) -- Nearly one million Afghans between the ages of 15 and 64 are drug addicts, according to a new survey.
That number would be about 8 percent of the population, or twice the global average, according to a report issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
"Much has been said and written about Afghanistan as a leading producer of drugs, causing health havoc in the world," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UNODC. "It is time to recognize that the same tragedy is taking place in Afghanistan".
Drug addiction appears to be on the rise as well.
A previous survey, conducted in 2005, found that 150,000 Afghans were regular opium users and 50,000 were regular heroin users. Those numbers increased to 230,000 opium users and 120,000 heroin users in the new report.
"We are facing a national tragedy," said Ibrahim Azghar, Afghanistan's deputy minister of counternarcotics.
