This is translated from a interview of a Russian special forces officer named Sergei Dubko (Intelligence, 56 DSB, Logar Province) talking about the War against Afghanistan. He was stationed inside Afghanistan between 1984-1985.
In the discussion he was talking about attacking caravans in the mountains of Afghanistan.
Sergei-
-“…After we cleared the caravans, heroin was lying in all the tents, all over the place. And anyone who wanted to try it did… Most of the company tried it, more than fifty percent, that’s for sure. …
And actually, we used another local drug – charas. We smoked it often, usually scored in a cigarette. Or burned and breathed through a tube (hookah). Or through the chillum. It’s like a pitcher of water, it looks like a teapot. A cigarette is inserted into the nose, and you suck it through the tube so that this smoke passes through the water. It goes very hard.
Interviewer-
– And it was everywhere? Everyone smoked? And the officers too?
Sergei-
– Yes, almost everyone. And the officers also dabbled in it.
Interviewer-
-And how did you relax after such wild mental loads: death, blood, children torn?…
Sergei-
– Charas. Yes… Mostly we smoked charas. When the operation was serious, whether someone was caught or something, the commanders actually closed their eyes to it, and one could even say that they allowed us to smoke charas…
Russian soldiers in Afghanistan looking at a score of Charas, Afghanistan, 1984