U.N.: Afghan opium market up 49%

[J-10]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-06-25-un-drug-report_N.htm?csp=34
VIENNA (AP) — Afghanistan produced dramatically more opium in 2006, increasing its yield by roughly 49% from a year earlier and pushing global opium production to a record high, a U.N. report said Tuesday.
Opium production increased from 4,100 metric tons in 2005 to 6,100 metric tons in 2006, according to the 2007 World Drug Report released by the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Opium is the main ingredient for heroin.

In 2006, Afghanistan accounted for 92% of global illicit opium production, up from 70% in 2000 and 52% a decade earlier. The higher yields in Afghanistan have brought global opium production to a record high of 6,610 metric tons in 2006, a 43% increase over 2005.

The area under opium poppy cultivation in the country also expanded, from 104,000 hectares (257,000 acres) in 2005, to 165,000 hectares (407,715 acres) in 2006 — an increase of about 59%.

"This is the largest area under opium poppy cultivation ever recorded in Afghanistan," the report said, noting that 62% of the cultivation was concentrated in the country's southern region.

[Nano]

http://english.people.com.cn/200504/05/eng20050405_179511.html
China's drug users on the rise
China had 791,000 drug addicts at the end of 2004, up 6.8 percent from 2003, according to the National Narcotics Control Commission.

Nearly 86 percent are addicted to heroin, but the number of people addicted to new kinds of drugs is increasing, according to statistics revealed at the commission's plenary meeting Monday.

Young people, farmers and the unemployed are three major groups of China's drug addicts, according to the commission.

[phoebus]

Something has to be done about the drug threat there.

It's a shame to try and fight Al Qaida /Taliban only to find out that our children, in our own countries, can become victims of this "business".

[annihilation]

I agree something has to be done. Have them plant something else. I understand some peoples arguments that if you burn their crops or don't give them an incentive to switch they starve and switch to the taliban. But whats the point of not doing anything and letting them ruin the lives of millions around the world. I rather see them suffer some hard ship and difficulty than to see this drug pour through the streets so easily and so much.

[Switek]

I agree! Something must be done but it requires lots of money to build food industry in Afganistan which be able to to absorb other agriculture production. But this requires other infrastructure: power plants, roads, gas stations, skilled personnel (schools) etc. To make it a peace is urgently needed! Vicious circle ... :roll:

[Kilo]

just buy the damm thing and sell it to the pharma industry




SPIEGEL ONLINE - March 27, 2007, 12:04 PM
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,473933,00.html
THE POPPY PROBLEM

NATO to Legalize Afghanistan's Opium?

Despite efforts to eradicate Afghanistan's opium production, the problem keeps getting worse. And the Taliban insurgency is the primary beneficiary. Now, some European governments are weighing a legalization of the drug trade.

Corruption. Crime. Addiction. And money for the Islamist Taliban insurgency. The list of ills engendered by opium and heroin production in Afghanistan is long. So too is the list of buyers -- the country accounts for over 90 percent of all opium produced on the planet. And international efforts to cut that output have proven fruitless.But a change of strategy may be on the horizon. Governments in Berlin, Paris and Rome, along with NATO leadership are discussing a potentially explosive new idea: the legalization of Afghanistan's opium production. The plan envisages farmers being able to sell their poppies to officially licensed buyers for the same price they currently get from the drug barons. The product could then be sold to the pharmaceutical industry for pain medication and other products.
"We are not bringing drug cultivation under control with the concepts we have had up to now," a NATO general responsible for Afghanistan told SPIEGEL.
A quick glance at production statistics proves the general's point. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that the amount of raw opium produced in Afghanistan in 2006 had increased by 49 percent over the previous year to around 6,100 tons. Much of the proceeds -- an estimated $3 billion -- are pumped back into the Taliban, as the Islamists continue to gain ground against NATO and US forces in the southern part of the country.
Worse, battling opium production is made more difficult by the country's instability. Zalmai Afzali, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Counter Narcotics told ******* earlier this month: "If we do not have peace in the coming months, we will probably end up with another boom in opium production for 2007."


The UN also suspects that many in the Afghan government may be complicit in the opium trade. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother is likewise suspect.So far, the coalition forces and the Afghan government have focused on trying to eradicate the poppies used to produce opium and heroin and attempting to convince poor farmers to plant something else. The US likewise prefers destroying poppy crops. The strategy, though, has served to force many desperate farmers into the arms of the Taliban.
Legalization, though, could pose its own risks. Critics of the plan warn that as long as some members of the state apparatus are in the pay of the drug barons, the legalized cultivation of poppies could just serve to increase their income

[Firetxmi]

just buy the damm thing and sell it to the pharma industry

Exactly, harness the power instead of destroying it. Win win for both sides.

[Desk Jockey]

Can the soil support any other viable crops? I heard no, but I am not a farmer / agriculture expert.

Eradication, seems a bit daunting.

Switek is spot on, people are going to feed their families how they can without another form of viable income, and that takes time, US cities have trouble of producing alternatives, Afghanistan? Difficult beyond comprehension.

And I believe the article, take away a guys lifeline, he loses respect and his family goes hungry, another foot soldier for the bad guys.

Also, if the demand is there, the need will be met by someone, people want their dope in Europe and the States.......... They Afghans are not doing that much heroin.

We (the US) have / are fighting a "war on drugs" and I still go back and forth on both sides of this tough issue.

[Desk Jockey]

[quote=phoebus;2591810]Something has to be done about the drug threat there.
quote]

Dude it is a shame, you are right, but the drug threat starts at home, consumers drive the market, the pushers and sellers are locals. Afghanistan, Mynammar (Burma), etc. just feed the demand.

It is a "my back yard" issue.