More opium likely in Afghan south

[[R_H]]

BBC

The amount of opium poppy cultivated in Afghanistan's volatile southern provinces will increase this year, according to an annual UN assessment.

But the UN adds, the overall harvest will be "similar to or lower than" last year's record-breaking level.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) based its findings on interviews in almost 500 villages.

Nimroz province, next to Helmand, is the greatest concern for 2008, with opium cultivation set to rise sharply.Record-breaking Helmand will still produce around half the country's opium, but cultivation is not expected to increase this year, the report says.

Kandahar and other southern provinces are also expected to increase their output.

But the eastern province of Nangarhar looks set to show a drop in the number of opium poppies grown - from having been one of the worst offenders last year.

'Not pleased'

More provinces could be declared "poppy free", the UN says, if planned eradication programmes in safer parts of the country are carried out. A lot depends on the success of the campaigns to eradicate the crops when they emerge in the spring.

The tractors are already out in the warmer, more dangerous south, ploughing up the poppy fields of Helmand.

But large areas of desert have been reclaimed and eradication in insecure areas is difficult and open to corruption.

The familiar connection between insecurity and poppy farming emerges from the figures.

There is also a warning about cannabis cultivation this year, which is also expected to increase.

It looks like another gloomy year for the international community's efforts to fight drugs in Afghanistan, led by the UK.

A British counter-narcotics official said: "We're not pleased by the overall level of cultivation, but it's good to see it stabilise.

"The progress outside the south shows what can be done in conditions where there is security."

[Eris]

I can already tell that this is not going to work. When given a choice between illegal drug manufacture and starvation - guess which people are going to take? Afghanistan doesn't have many other options, and we've given them nothing new. And there's a lot of money in opium, so of course they're going to keep growing massive loads of it.

The entire notion of supply side drug control, that is, destroying the supply of it as a means of control, is just stupid. You wipe out crops, and the farmers move location. There's simply too much money in it for it to simply disappear. It's rather like trying to empty a sealed water balloon by squeezing it - you just shift the contents about.

[Shroom Man 777]

So America's fucked up the War on Terror AND given a new front for the War on Drugs! Wow!

Hooray! You've won the War on Peace!

[Korvan]

Why not have our governments just buy up all the opium and then destroy it. You get rid of the drugs and help the afghan economy at the same time. Then come up with incentives to have the farmers switch over to other crops.

I remember seeing a documentary quite a while ago that mentioned a leftist military group from Myanmar or around there, offered the US about 1/3 of the world's opium harvest for $10 million a year. They were turned down of course.

[HemlockGrey]

This is fantastic news for my crippling addiction to black tar heroin.

[aerius]

Well, the codeine in my Tylenol 3 has to come from somewhere...

[K. A. Pital]

Korvan
What's interesting, if a government would buy opiates and massively use them in creating opiate medicines, that would at the same time reduce drug circulation outside of contract and make anesthetical opiates dirt-cheap for hospitals to use, cutting the costs of anesthesia.

Of course, in such a case the government should also closely monitor the plantations so that they don't expand production to meet both the drug industry and government needs, and ruthlessly crack down on all who attempt to sell to the drug barons, forcing most to deal with the government only.

[weemadando]

Well, the codeine in my Tylenol 3 has to come from somewhere...

That somewhere is Tasmania my friend.

Thank you for putting me through university.

[Adrian Laguna]

I do hope the commanders in Afghanistan realize that destroying opium poppy crops is one of the best ways to turn apathetic farmers into Taliban supporters.

[Korvan]

Korvan
What's interesting, if a government would buy opiates and massively use them in creating opiate medicines, that would at the same time reduce drug circulation outside of contract and make anesthetical opiates dirt-cheap for hospitals to use, cutting the costs of anesthesia.

Of course, in such a case the government should also closely monitor the plantations so that they don't expand production to meet both the drug industry and government needs, and ruthlessly crack down on all who attempt to sell to the drug barons, forcing most to deal with the government only.

I would also imagine that you'd have to provide the farmers with a bit of security to protect them from any retaliation from the drug lords, but without any drugs to sell, I can't see the drug lords lasting that long as the thugs in their employ aren't really the types to calmly accept a few missed paychecks.

My own view on why we aren't doing this is that there is a lot of vested interest in keeping things just the way they are. The anti-drug forces would lose a lot of prestige and funding if this happened. And I imagine drug money ends up in a lot of interesting places after it has been laundered and invested.

[weemadando]

The opiate poppy industry is already well established in what you could easily term a secure location (ie Tasmania) in a stable country (Australia). And it can be expanded upon there and in other "safe" locations, such as the other producers like France, the US, UK and Japan. I'll leave India and Burma off that list for obvious reasons.