The Blue State

Druglord influence continues to rise in Afghanistan

We were seeing reports about this three years ago, and even then it was bad.  But a new report submitted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime found that Afghanistan's drug economy is soaring out of control -- doubling over the last two years:

Afghanistan's opium production has doubled in two years, reaching a newhigh in 2007, with the country almost the exclusive supplier of theworld's deadliest drug, the United Nations  announced Monday.

Production was estimated to have jumped 34 percent this year over lastwith the number of heroin labs also increasing, the UN Office on Drugsand Crime said in its Annual Opium Survey.

The southern province of Helmand had meanwhile become the world'sbiggest source of illicit drugs, surpassing the output of entirecountries.

Earlier this summer, I reported on the severity of the disaster in Helmand Province.  In that province alone, three times as much opium is produced than in Burma, the second worst opium country.  Of course, the US only has 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, so it is unmistakably difficult to do anything about it right now.

Afghan poppy production up 15% since 2006

Last year, figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes found that opium cultivation in Afghanistan rose 59%.  Today, just more than seven full months into 2007, poppy production is up another 15%.  Even more stunning, this increase comes during the middle of a $475 million anti-heroin effort by the Bush Administration:

U.N. figures to be released in Septemberare expected to show that Afghanistan‘s poppy production has risen upto 15 percent since 2006 and that the country now accounts for 95percent of the world‘s crop, 3 percentage points more than last year,officials familiar with preliminary statistics told The AssociatedPress.

Those ideas representwhat proponents call an "enhanced carrot-and-stick approach" tosupplement existing anti-drug efforts. They are the focus of the new$475 million program outlined in a 995-page report, the release ofwhich has been postponed twice and may be again delayed due todisagreements, officials said.

So how bad is it compared to a few years ago?

• In 2004, Afghanistan produced 87% of the world's heroin, according to UN data.  Just three years later, that same group will report in September that the number is now 95%.
• Between 2005 and 2006, Afghanistan increased its opium yield by 49%.  In 2005, the yield was 4,100 metric tons.  In 2006, it was 6,100 metric tons.

Maybe arming and relying on Afghan warlords, many of them poppy farmers, to catch Osama bin Laden was not such a good idea.  Just a thought.

Afghan opium production out of control

The Helmand Province in Afghanistan accounts for at least half of the world's opium, according to a new report from the World Drug Report.  Afghanistan as a whole produces 90% of all opium worldwide:

The report says Afghanistan is unlikely to regain real security until the production of illegal drugs is tackled.

In the 1980s, Afghanistan produced some 30% of theworld's opium, but now that figure has more than tripled, the UNdocument says.

It says that Helmand province alone cultivates almost half the world's illegal opium.

Thomas Pietschmann, the report's author, says production in Helmand has now outstripped that of entire countries.

"The province of Helmand itself is around 70,000hectares under cultivation, which is three times the total area undercultivation in Myanmar (Burma).

"So only one province, three times as important as thewhole of Myanmar, the second-largest opium-producing country," MrPietschmann says.

Countries that rely on only one or two resources to finance their economy turn out to be corrupt.  Whether it is oil or opium dependence, whoever controls those resources will do anything to hold onto power.  Profit always comes before emocracy.  The US has 30,000 troops in Afghanistan.  But the opium-producing warlords are really the ones with all the cards.