Afghan anti-poppy program boosts opium prices

[ckramer]

March 22 (Reuters) - U.S.-led efforts to eradicate opium cultivation in Afghanistan have nearly doubled raw opium prices and threatened to push Afghan farmers back to growing poppies, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday.

Falling prices last year due to a large harvest helped the international community discourage farmers from planting this year. But the expected market tightening has driven prices to $180 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) this month from $100 last October, he said.

Farmers could now return to cultivating poppy "if active intervention on law enforcement, coupled with effective alternative livelihoods assistance, is not provided on an urgent basis," he reported to the U.N. Security Council.

Heroin and morphine are derived from opium, which comes from poppies.

The illegal narcotics trade dominates Afghanistan's economy, accounting for 60 percent of its gross domestic product and 87 percent of the world's supply.

A U.S. State Department report released earlier this month described Afghan heroin production as an "enormous threat to world stability."

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[libpunkmom]

1. Poppy fields &

instability in Latin American countries are two of the excuses that the Intel agencies are using to combine the War on Terror with the War on Drugs. It basically comes down to them doubling their funding, their "reach" for Intel gathering, and gives the Bush regime the possibility to detain twice as many people under the provisions of the Patriot Act.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. Oh yeah... sounds familiar? DEA reduces supply

so the CIA can get more money to fund black ops.

And, of course the only fields that get destroyed are those belonging to the people who don't play with the program.

Same old game, new faces.