H09069
Headlines : War on DrugsAfghanistan on target for record opium crop
It looks like another victorious year for the war on drugs eradication programs, when this news is combined with the news of a 26% increase in coca cultivation in Colombia. The power of the Taliban is slowly growing from the poppy cultivation, and without effective alternative growing practices, we can expect the coca cultivation to break a record next year as well.
[Posted By senssensibilityr]Republished from The Independent
Two hours’ drive from the Afghan city of Kandahar, “the perfect storm” is about to break in the fields of Helmand province.
Here, in the place where British troops are to spend the next three years, a combination of factors have conspired to produce what is probably the biggest opium harvest in the history of a province that, last year, produced more than 20 per cent of the world’s heroin on its own.
A law and order vacuum has allowed an increasingly well-organised drugs cartel, a corrupt local government and resurgent Taliban to structure the poppy cultivation of the province as never before. That has combined with fine growing conditions this year to produce what, if these were wine producers, might be considered a memorable vintage. And, country-wide it is now clear the poppy harvest will be close to record levels again. It is a dispiriting blow for the international counter-narcotics effort as 86 per cent of the world’s heroin comes from Afghanistan.
Among a gently swaying sea of poppy heads near the town of Grishk, Haji Shadi Khan, 50, squatted wearily on his haunches and drained a proffered bottle of water in a single draught.
The harvest began last week and it…
Posted by senssensibilityr
Student of German and Russian culture, history and language, emphasis on post-Dark Age European History.
German and Russian 20th century literature.
Studying Arabic.
Cannot wait to go to Freiburg to study @ Goethe Institut im Februar.
that’s weird. i thought the Taliban had banned opium poppy cultivation. it was the “northern alliance” that consisted mostly of the old drug-lords and war-lords. i’d guess that the CIA is in control.
“Afghanistan on target for record opium crop”
Aaaahhh the wonders of a modern “Democracy”, they can certainly get the agricultural section primed and motivated cant they. Must bring a little tiny tear to GWs eye to see the terrible and outrageous Taliban practice of censuring free enterprise, by banning poppy cultivation, at last brought to a glorious end, justifies the whole invasion and occupation.
Should be a big year of political protests in Europe and the US, thats if the students can stop shooting up dirt cheap heroine long enough to think about going outside.
Nice propaganda piece though. I like the way that they blame it all on the Taliban who had pretty much wiped out opium production in Afghanistan. But then they are the evil ones and we all know that the evil ones of the moment are responsible for all things bad and nasty while the coalition of the true believers are responsible only for light, goodness and the American way.
The Oz govt just announced that we are sending more troops to Afghanistan, I assumed that we were getting ready to slip accross the border by mistake and start shooting Iranians but maybe they are just there to bring our share of the crop home.
looks like the “war on drugs” is being lost.
“last year, produced more than 20 per cent of the world’s heroin on its own.”
“It is a dispiriting blow for the international counter-narcotics effort as 86 per cent of the world’s heroin comes from Afghanistan.”
was last year a terrible crop or is 86% a static arbitrary number? please reconcile these ‘numbers’. these sorts of descrepancies drive me nuts.
good to learn some of the inner workings and cultivation of opium, and state of ameriganistan farming. it was my understanding the when the taliban were in control opium production was much more limited—is this not the case—or in their weakened capacity are they setting aside ideological demands in order to shore themselves up through the monies garnered from production?
It’s really quite a coincidence that Sept 11 directly led to the liberation of Afghanistan’s opium and heroin. Strange how that worked, eh?
glacialimprint, the 20% figure is referring only to Helmand province.
That province alone produces that amount.
The country itself produces 86%
I know, it caught me too, I had to read it over again.
btw> A good book on this subject..
“Politics of Heroin – CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade” – by Alfred W. McCoy
Shifty – they now call anyone opposed to forgin occupation of Afganistan “Taliban”, The Northen alliance used to grow opium as this was a source of income in their fight againt the soviets and then the taliban and now against the US back government. They had to do this as most of the money sent them was being stolen on it’s was through pakistan. Anyway no drug problem will ever be solved by targeting supply.
when the taliban burned their opium, dropping from over 3,000 metric tonnes of opium in 1999 to only 200 metric tonnes of opium in 2000, they said that they did it to “destroy the u.s. economy”
coincidentially we had 5 quarters of recession starting in mid 99 when they destroyed the crops and through last quarter of 2001 (after 9/11)
there was a quarter of non-recession, but I am counting it because the only reason we did not have negative gdp growth that quarter was due to a doubling of u.s. government spending. (bush)
How hard would it be to get the drug lords of the northern alliance that we currently support re-classified as terrorists who are waging bio-chemical warfare against US citizens?
Oh wait, I see they just hired Ralph Reed and Preston, Gates, & Ellis as lobbyists, so I guess they’ll have to remain ‘freedom fighters’.
(Ok, I made the last part up. But I bet they do have a lobbying firm somewhere in the US.)
Last I heard, most of the opium produced in Afghanistan ended up in Europe not the U.S., which imports mostly from the Golden Triangle in south-east Asia and increasingly, Colombia. So not many US citizens lose out from the burgeoning Afghan drug trade.
I say again – the Canadian troops must offer to buy those crops, not destroy them. That will take the poppy-crop funding away from the Taliban, and the heroin could be used to reduce crime in Canada by giving it to the addicts here. That would be the opposite of prohibition… Prohibition has only resulted in MORE drugs, MORE addicts, and money for criminals – lets get the violence out of the drug problem and end prohibition.