subject: Opium Production Will Increase This Year [print this page] We know that a very large amount of the worlds opium is grown and harvested in Afghanistan. Opium provides a way of life for most of the people who grow it because most of them happen to be poor farmers. It will always be in demand because there will always be a demand for illegal drugs.
The United Nations department that monitors global drug trafficking says Afghanistan's opium production may rise by more than two-thirds this year. In a new report, the U.N. warns the resulting increase in profits will translate into even more money to fund insurgent groups in the war-ravaged country. The U.N.s Office on Drugs and Crime says Afghan farmers of opium are expecting higher yields this year, as their fields recover from a crop disease that lowered supply last year. Afghanistan was already supplying more than 80 percent of the worlds opium, but with speculation and market insecurity driving prices higher than ever, the U.N. report says even more areas within the country are being cultivated.
The US military was attempting to eradicate the growing of opium in Afghanistan at one time but that obviously didnt work out for whatever reason. Much of the money raised by the sale of this government finds its way into the hands of the Taliban where it is used to fund terrorist activities. The farmers who actually grow the poppies dont make very much in the way of profits. The majority of them are poor and they look at this as a way of feeding their families because they know that there is always a demand for opium.
Afghanistans role in what the U.N. conservatively estimates to be a $66 billion world opium trade brings in up to $2 billion a year which turns out to be nine percent of the country's gross domestic product.
Drugs are the biggest financer of the insurgents," said Brigadier General Carsten Jacobsen, a Kabul ISAF spokesman. "That has to be stopped, and we have made progress. Only in the last three weeks, three-quarters of a billion dollars worth of drugs were found and destroyed.
In its report, the United Nations has also urged Afghanistans neighbors - including Pakistan - to uproot networks on their side of the Afghan border that facilitate drug trafficking. A major chunk of Afghanistans drug exports are smuggled through both Pakistan and Iran.
Pakistan is in no hurry to do anything to help the US cause in Afghanistan. I wouldnt be surprised at all if there were high ranking Pakistani officials found to be involved in the opium trade. Leaders in this area have a reputation for being corrupt and there is just too much money to be made by trading drugs. In addition, the logistics required to move so much of this product are too complicated for the drug smugglers to handle without some outside help. There has to be some high level government involvement.
There is really just about nothing that the US can do to stop the opium trade and the Pakistanis are probably making too much money to even want to stop it. Drug abuse is a serious problem in Pakistan and Afghanistan just like it is in the United States.Military Ring Express
