Under US Occupation, Afghan Opium Industry Surges to Record Levels

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/13


Opium production in Afghanistan amounted to 5,500 tons in 2013, up by almost a half since 2012. (Photo: UNODC)

The cultivation of opium poppy in Afghanistan—a nation under the military control of US and NATO forces for more than twelve years—has risen to an all-time high, according to the 2013 Afghanistan Opium Survey released Wednesday by the United Nations.

According to the report, cultivation of poppy across the war-torn nation rose 36 per cent in 2013 and total opium production amounted to 5,500 tons, up by almost a half since 2012.

“This has never been witnessed before in the history of Afghanistan,” said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the outgoing leader of the Afghanistan office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which produced the report.

Fueling the ongoing military conflict in the country, the opium epidemic has also spurred a growing crisis of drug addiction in Afghanistan.

[Brickbat]

1. Smells like victory!

[TwilightGardener]

2. We're out of there next year, for the most part--let them all get high and kill each other,

or maybe they'll be too stoned to care. I'm beyond giving a damn what happens over there, just want it over.

[MH1]

3. Some are getting stoned, but the issue is the massive profit in getting OTHER people stoned

Just like with any other drug-pushing enterprise.

I personally think it would have been better if the US had actively managed the opium crop and channeled it into legitimate pharmaceuticals. Then we could have controlled who was profiting and made it worth their while to be friendly to us, rather than the Taliban. The problem with that approach is that opiates are so addicting that they are problematic even as a "legitimate" pharmaceutical.

It's a tough problem. I always said about Afghanistan, since invasion was first suggested after 9/11: I could maybe support it if I thought we would do it right, but with Bush in charge there was exactly zero possibility of that. Even done "right" by my concept, there was always a huge risk of abject failure along the lines of what we are seeing, and we needed to always comprehend that and be prepared for it. But no, we didn't even slightly attempt to do it right.

[G_j]

4. That Other Big Afghan Crisis, the Growing Army of Addicts

posted recently, unfortunately seemingly completely ignored..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023974776

[Hekate]

5. The Taliban suppressed the age-old crop, but farmers hid seeds beneath their floors...

The fact is, it's a valuable cash crop for poor farmers in dry land. The amount of money they need every year to just make ends meet is, by our standards, pitifully small.

When I read about this 12 years ago, I thought that if any of the Neocons in Washington had an ounce of sense, they'd find a way to subsidize the farmers for years to come to keep them from going back to growing poppies.

But, of course, the Neocons had other things on their minds, like Baghdad. As a consequence, within a year of our glorious overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the poppy crop was making a comeback, and shortly afterward, cheap opium and heroin were making their way to the world. Addicts were congregating in border cities for easy access.

Damn the Neocons to hell.

[msongs]

6. maybe they need a religion that opposes drugs ... nt