Afghanistan Drug Trade Hits $4 Billion a Year
Here is an older story from 2006 that was in the New York Times. Below is a new article describing how the opium trade has continued to increase under US occupation. The important thing to understand is that our troops are guarding these fields!
Tags: Afghanistan, Amphetamines, Drugs, Kabul, Military, Narcotics, Opium, Poppies, Saudi Arabia, Taliban, UN, US, War, War on DrugsAfghanistan drug trade hits $4 billion a year
Colum Lynch / The Age | June 28, 2008
AFGHAN opium poppy cultivation grew 17% last year, according to the 2008 World Drug Report, released by the United Nations.
It continues a six-year expansion of the country’s drug trade and increasing its share of global opium production to more than 92%. Afghanistan’s emergence as the world’s largest supplier of opium and heroin represents a serious setback to US policy in the region.
The opium trade has soared since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban, which had eradicated almost all of the country’s opium poppies. The proceeds from the illicit trade are helping finance a resurgent Taliban battling US and allied troops.
The Taliban earned $US200 million ($A208 million) to $US400 million last year from poppy growers and drug traffickers in areas under its control, said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime.
He estimates that Afghan poppy farmers and drug traffickers last year earned about $US4 billion, half of the country’s national income.
Afghanistan’s high-yielding variety of opium poppies has helped double global opium production since 2005.
With production far outpacing world demand, UN anti-drug officials and government intelligence agencies worry about massive stockpiling.
The Bush Administration cited UN data suggesting that opium production will fall slightly this year in Afghanistan but acknowledged the scope of the problem.
“The drug threat in Afghanistan remains unacceptably high and requires a long-term commitment by both the Afghan Government and international donors,” said Susan Pittman, of the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.
But the Administration also said the UN report confirmed its view that international efforts to contain the use of illicit drugs are succeeding, including in the US, where drug consumption has dropped over the past decade.
The 309-page report tracks a surge in marijuana production in Afghanistan and an increase in cocaine production in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia.
The UN noted new hubs for shipment and drug use — including Saudi Arabia, which in 2006 led the world in seizures of amphetamines. About 26 million people worldwide are addicted to drugs, the report said, and about 5% had used an illicit drug in the 12 months before the study.
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THERE IS A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR YEARLY DRUG TRADE INSIDE THE USA PRISON SYSTEM. IF PROHIBITION CANNOT KEEP DRUGS OUT OF PRISON WHAT MAKES ANYONE THINK IT CAN BE CONTROLLED OUTSIDE OF PRISONS?
THERE IS A BETTER SOLUTION AND IT WILL WORK BUT THE VOICE OF PEOPLE EVERYWHERE MUST BE RAISED… LOUD AND CLEAR!
It’s time to remove all the politicians that promote prohibition.
How many more lives have to be needlessly devastated or lost?
Prohibited drugs are way easier for kids to get than regulated drugs!
Prohibition never works it just causes crime and violence.
The USA spends $69 billion a year on the drug war, builds 900 new prison beds and hires 150 more correction officers every two weeks, arrests someone on a drug charge every 17 seconds, jails more people than any nation and has killed over 100,000 citizens in the drug war.
In 1914 when there were no prohibited drugs 1.3% of our population was addicted to drugs, today 1.3% of our population is still addicted to drugs but there’s way more crime and violence because of the huge profits prohibition generates. Drugs today are more potent, more readily available and less expensive than they were in the early 70’s when Richard Nixon started the war on drugs. Every time you look at the news you see more and more drug busts involving bigger and bigger quantities of drugs, not less and less… doesn’t that call for change?
“Jury Nullification”, learn more here: http://fija.org If you are called for jury duty and you don’t agree with the law the person is charged with, you have the right to vote not guilty, no matter what evidence is produced. Jurors implementing this right in all non-violent drug cases will shut down the ridiculous laws of prohibition. One juror in each case is all it takes. The bottom line is a juror has the right to judge not only the accused person but the law the person is accused of breaking. Don’t be intimidated stick to your position.
There’s only been one drug success story in history, tobacco, by far the most deadly and one of the most addictive drugs. Almost half the users quit because of regulation, accurate information and medical treatment. No one went to jail and no one got killed.
The right; to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and many others have been denied to millions of Americans in the name of the drug war.
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