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Afghanistan Anti-Drug Policies Aid Taliban, Says Report
Drug Policy Alliance | 09/07/2006

A new report (PDF) by the Senlis Council, a U.K. think tank, finds that counter-narcotics policies in Afghanistan over the last five years have facilitated insurgency, laying the groundwork for the Taliban to return to power. The report says that the internationally backed strategy of poppy eradication has undermined the stability of the government and driven the country further into poverty.

Poppy eradication has failed to reduce the amount of production in Afghanistan, with poppy cultivation currently at its highest level in recent history. In 2006, about 165,000 hectares are devoted to growing poppy, compared to under 60,000 hectares in 1996.

Much of rural Afghanistan is deeply impoverished, and poppy farming is the only viable source of income for many farmers. Without alternative means of livelihood, farmers are unable to give up growing poppy. Therefore, eradication does not actually do away with poppy farming, but leads to its relocation to more remote areas. There is no end in sight for this pattern--only three percent of Afghanistan's irrigated land is currently used for poppy farming, but much of the country is well-suited for it.

Not only does this approach fail to reduce growth of illicit crops, but it also damages rural economies, having the greatest negative impact on the farmers who benefit least from the opium trade.

According to the Senlis Council, impoverished farmers whose livelihoods are attacked by eradication tend to view counter-narcotics operations as a war on Afghans, rather than a War on Drugs. In addition, some Afghans who were promised money in exchange for cooperation with crop eradication have not received any compensation. This has led to distrust of foreigners as well as loss of confidence in the Karzai administration. Many farmers are now turning to the Taliban for crop protection.

In order to combat this destabilization and set Afghanistan on the path to reconstruction, the Senlis Council calls for sustainable and competitive alternatives to poppy farming, combined with an immediate halt to crop eradication. An agreement signed in early 2006 called for a policy of "sequenced" eradication, in which eradication was only supposed to take place in areas that had established alternative livelihoods. However, the report cites evidence that this policy is not being followed.

The Senlis Council suggests moving Afghanistan towards controlled, licensed poppy production for use in making opium-based medicines. The report points to a dramatic global shortage of opium-based medicines for pain management in illnesses such as AIDS, particularly in developing countries. Turkey successfully used licensing in the early 1980s to bring its widespread poppy cultivation under control, and could serve as a model for Afghanistan.

The report calls for this shift in strategy immediately, saying that eliminating poverty and providing alternative, legal means of livelihood for Afghan farmers are necessary to pave the way for true nation-building in Afghanistan.

 

reggie_the_dog

This is a smokescreen, heroin and hashish production was reduced to almost nothing under the Taliban, now Afganistan alone produces more heroin than the world uses in a year, and Afgan hash is sold in the Netherlands for 2 euros a gram.

The taliban will not be albe to compete in an arms race against the growers/producers mafia.


And look who "controls" Afganistan now, the USA.

One can imagine that the CIA is profiting quite well of of the newly resurgent drug trade going on here.

vladimir

im still amazed at how govt officials are still having to figure out that eradication doesnt really slow down supply. it's the same for opium, cocaine, and marijuana eradication plans, yet they keep doing it thinking that somehow, magically, it will actually work.

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dredpiratrobert

it amazes me that there would have been a shortage in poppy based pain-killers. What is even more astounding? The US allows ONE company under license to import raw poppy products for medicinal manufacture, Malinkordt Pharmaceutical. And so the big question I have is why on Earth does the US government support foreign drug trade in this way?? If Heroine is such a problem in the US (which it is) then why support economies that rely on heroin sales? Seems real dumb

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Tokamak

that our government has been thriving so well under the Drug War that it is now addicted?

Prohibition has an effect the reverse of what is supposedly intended: illicit drug production and usage expands, rather than decreases. This causes the further effects of encreased budgets to federal and state law enforcement (through property seizure), a prison-industrial complex, and a convenient way for the media to sell through spreading fear. The pharmaceutical industry also prospers, because it becomes the only way people can legally find relief from pain, while making even larger amounts of (and profits off of) prescription drugs that have street value. Limiting the importation of raw ingredients for manufacturing legal, plant-based narcotics also benefits the pharmaceutical industry because it allows for increased profits from patented synthetic narcotics. Meanwhile, the oil, lumber, cotton, alcohol, and pharmaceutical industries undoubtedly gain from the ban on cannabis and hemp.

This increase in wealth gives these industries very, VERY wealthy lobbying arms at the private level, and a direct link to the government, via Law Enforcement and corrupt politicians. The wealthy and well-funded exert their influence through government and the media, and our government itself innundates us with propaganda. Furthermore, the increase in the usage of potentially dangerous, physically addictive illicit drugs of unknown quality (e.g. trailer-park meth) serves as a pandemic illness on a part of the world's populace, usually the working poor, helping to keep them down, away from education, so as to maintain an more naive and ignorant lower class -- people who ether buy into the lies, or lack the motivation to change things.

Lastly, Prohibition benefits organized religion, by providing an Evil to strive against, and an enforcement for the moral condemnation of drugs that might open people up to more personally spiritual ways of thought. A large percentage of the world's people believe strongly in Judeo-Christian/Islamic organized religions. Politicians exploit the beliefs of these people in order to gain even more control.

End lecture... Its just that articles like these get me thinking...

Peace.

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dedbr

Any detective will ask that question. Who profits. Find the money and you'll find the answer.........


Some Where In Ded Land..........

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