AHS Views

The world is awash in Afghan heroin, millions of people need drug rehab, and no one knows what to do about it.

The world-wide illicit drugs business is by far the most profitable illicit global trade, says the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), earning some $320 billion annually. Compared to this, human trafficking at $32 billion and illegal firearms at $1 billion are a drop in the bucket. Afghanistan, producing 92% of the world’s illegal opium from its miles and miles of poppy farms, is by far the world’s largest contributor to the production of illicit heroin and morphine. For millions of addicts around the world, the dark force from Afghanistan that rules their lives can only be overcome through drug rehab.

Not surprisingly, no one has come up with a workable idea on how to stop it. The problem is that the chain of “narcodollars” reaches from the poppy farms all the way to the highest levels of Afghanistan’s government, with the Taliban insurgents in the mix in a very big way. At $3.1 billion, the opium trade is the equivalent of a third of the country’s total economy. Last year’s 6,100 tons of opium was worth $60 billion at street prices, and this year an even larger crop is expected.
 
As well as keeping the drug barons rich, the drug trade has affected Afghanistan’s citizenry in an unexpected and very negative way. Historically, poppy farmers and citizens rarely used the drugs personally. Today, according to UN reports, thousands of Afghani’s are abusing the drugs and becoming addicted, and desperately need drug rehab. But the country doesn’t have the necessary infrastructure to support drug rehab facilities.

As for solutions, the U.S. is pushing for crop spraying and destruction. But thousands of farmers will be out of work and penniless. Replacing poppies with other crops won’t work because there’s no distribution system for exporting produce. Others are suggesting the opium trade be legitimized and production redirected for medicines. But the health industry won’t pay street prices to drug barons, so that probably won’t fly.

Meanwhile, here in America we continue to deal with street drug crime and lives being ruined through opiate addiction. Until a solution is found to stop the supplies of drugs from around the world, we can try to prevent addiction by our own example and through effective education. And we must care for those who suffer addiction with successful drug rehab programs that really work.

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