AHS Views

Afghanistan supplies up to 90% of the world’s opium cultivation, according to some estimates, despite being illegal. Recently there have been some advocates trying to get it legalized and subsidized in the country.

The U.S. State Department issued a release this week saying, “In recent months, we have seen several articles and reports advocating the legalization of opium in Afghanistan … The governments of Afghanistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States are all opposed to the legalization of opium in Afghanistan, as are the relevant technical agencies of the United Nations.”

For the 2006 growing season, farmers participating in India’s licit market were paid anywhere from $16 to $49 per-kilogram of opium gum (the lower end of this price range being far more typical). In contrast, a trafficker in Afghanistan was willing to pay $138 per-kilogram of opium gum on average in 2005 and $125 on average in 2006.

According to the United States Economic & Social Commission for Western Asia, opium poppy is a profitable crop that is produced with cheap labor (women, children and refugees). In 2002, gross income from the opium poppy crops in Afghanistan rose to $1.2 billion. Afghan farmers were offered $1,250 per hectare (about 2.5 acres) by the government to destroy their crops, but they are expected to receive $16,000 per hectare in profits from drug processors and traffickers for growing the poppies.

A report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime last September showed the area under opium cultivation in Afghanistan reached a record 165,000 hectares in 2006 compared with 104,000 in 2005 (an increase of 59 percent overall). In the southern province of Helmand, where Taliban insurgents have scaled up their attacks on Afghan government and international forces, cultivation soared 162 percent to 69,324 hectares.

Unfortunately, in the Afghan economy, the financial gain outweighs the devastation caused by the pain-killing drugs the opium poppy is used for, such as heroin. Officials say that roughly 80 percent of the heroin found in Europe comes from Afghanistan as well as nearly all of the supply in Russia. However, an increasing amount continues to find its way to the U.S.

Article by Eric Mitchell