Afghan Poppy

2007 will be a record year for opium growth in Afghanistan. Illegal drugs derived from the extensive Afghan poppy fields make their way all over the world and have started to influence drug policy in many concerned countries. Effective strategy for dealing with the opium production, which many suspect funds the Taliban, is not as easy as burning fields and arresting farmers. Growing poppy is closely integrated with Afghan culture and government and some strategists fear that harsh actions against the growers may push more of the populace against NATO forces.

What to Do with All that Afghanistan Opium

TRAVELS WITH SHILOH - One of the constant obstacles to making significant progress in Afghanistan is figuring out how to handle the opium trade. The knee jerk reaction is to defoliate, burn and arrest our way to a solution but given the abysmal track record of that strategy thus far in the War on Drugs there’s no reason to think that we’ll have better luck with those tactics in Afghanistan. In fact, there are a number of complicating factors that not only make the prospect of getting farmers to stop growing poppies really, really unlikely but our ‘go to’ tactics will most likely make the security situation...

UN Reports Dramatic Rise in Afghan Opium Crop

GOV DOCS BLOG - Opium production in Afghanistan has increased to “frightening” levels in 2007, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The Afghanistan Opium Survey 2007 Executive Summary (pdf, 2.0MB) reports that the amount of cultivated land devoted to opium in 2007 is 17% greater than a year ago, and favorable weather conditions have contributed to an overall production increase of 36%. UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa, in the report’s Foreward, notes that apart from 19th century China, “no other country in the world has ever produced narcotics on...

Failed Strategy Connects Afghan Fields

OX BLOG - In the coming months, under the leadership of the former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, U.S. private contractors will likely attempt to fumigate poppies in Afghanistan. Around the same time, the Canadian government will decide whether to shut down the Insite supervised injection site in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The two policies are inextricably linked and unambiguously bad. In April, the United States appointed William Wood, nicknamed "Chemical Bill," its new ambassador to Afghanistan. In his previous post, Wood championed and oversaw the fumigation of large swaths of the Colombian...

12.17.07

08:17 PM -

Look closer

Anonymous -

01:46 PM -

Conrad - you should read my post

jb - Conrad, problems like these are transnational. And the economic and social consequences can not be contained by borders (armed or not) - unless you're North Korea.

Just look at the economic forces (be they illegal or not) that have shaped Opium production in the past.

12:40 PM -

Not our problem

Conrad - Nato Troops are there to secure the country and rout the taliban, not to go looking around for whose growing what for poppy muffins. If theres an heroin problem its up to the afghan government to solve it.

11:17 AM -

Border Control

Doofus - JackHack, I wish that it were that easy to clamp down a border. If it were so easy, we wouldn't have fifteen million illegal immigrants in this country. If it were that easy, we wouldn't have Mr. Bin Laden bouncing across the border with a big dialasis machine trailing behind him. And we wouldn't have the Taliban trailing breadcrumb trails of empty gunshells behind them. Those mountains are one of the most isolated places on the face of this earth. Perch yourself on the highest mountain peak around and break out a big ass pair of binoculars and we'll save the war on drugs.

11:02 AM -

Intricate drug ring

jb - Well, the Taliban originally used opium money to finance the battle with the Russians. In 1999, opium supply soared - and illegal drug prices plummeted. Western drug lords, furious that the markup on their goods was shrinking, instructed the Taliban to reduce production. At that point the Taliban issued a religious edict against Opium - drastically reducing production. With the fall of the Taliban thanks to American troops, the ban on opium also fell - and drug prices on Western markets also start to plummet.

01:14 AM -

Managing with a Military

StickyWicket - Don't we have troops all over the place over there? How hard could it be to keep a lid on the poppy growing over there? I mean, is it really that hard? Isn't it ironic that there was less poppy growing before the war? Can someone explain that to me?

12.16.07

11:24 PM -

Here it is....

JackAttack - You go in there, burn the fields, arrest farmers. Not pretty. You've just destabilized the whole country and the NATO force is even less popular than it already is. At the same time, all that opium is created a problem literally around the world - not to mention the fact that it's funding the taliban. So here's the solution: focus on the export. Let poppy farmers grow as much as they want, but don't let it leave the country. Clamp down the borders and organize an international effort and let Afghanistan do whatever it wants.

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