heroin
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">disambiguation see opium and opioid</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Or consider the </span><a href="https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/lessonslearned/SIGAR-18-52-LL.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">report</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">, “Counternarcotics: Lessons from the U.S. Experience in Afghanistan,” issued this June by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR). Its focus:</span><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> 15 years of American efforts to suppress opium growing and the heroin trade in that country (at historic lows, by the way, when the U.S. invaded in 2001). More than eight and a half billion American dollars later, SIGAR found, opium remains the country’s largest cash crop, <a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/afghanistan-drug-trade-sigar-report/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">supporting</a> “590,000 full-time jobs -- which is more people than are employed by Afghanistan’s military and security forces.” </b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Oh, wait, historian Alfred McCoy was writing about just that at </span><em style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">TomDispatch</em><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> back in</span><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">2010 under <a href="https://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175225/alfred_mccoy_afghanista_as_a_drug_war" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">the headline</a> “Can Anyone Pacify the World’s Number One Narco-State?</b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">” (“In ways that have escaped most observers, the Obama administration is now trapped in an endless cycle of drugs and death in Afghanistan from which there is neither an easy end nor an obvious exit.”)</span></font></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan</a></span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Opium production in Afghanistan</b></font></div><div>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div><div>
</div><div>This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2018)</div><div>
</div><div>Poppy plantation in Gostan valley, Nimruz Province]</div><div>
</div><div>Afghanistan has been the world's leading illicit opium producer since 2001.[1] Afghanistan's opium poppy harvest produces more than 90% of illicit heroin globally, and more than 95% of the European supply.[2][3] More land is used for opium in Afghanistan than is used for coca cultivation in Latin America. In 2007, 93% of the non-pharmaceutical-grade opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan.[4] This amounts to an export value of about US$4 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords, and drug traffickers.[5] In the seven years (1994–2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers' share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families.[6] As of 2017, opium production provides about 400,000 jobs in Afghanistan, more than the Afghan National Security Forces.[7] In addition to opium, Afghanistan is also the world's leading producer of hashish.[8][9].</div><div>
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</div><div>Contents</div><div>1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>History</div><div>1.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Soviet period (1979–1989)</div><div>1.2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Warlord period (1989–1994)</div><div>1.3<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rise of the Taliban (1994–2001)</div><div>1.4<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Afghan War (2001–current)</div><div>1.5<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Foreign involvement</div><div>2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Production and distribution</div><div>2.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Drug trafficking</div><div>2.2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Labor practices</div><div>3<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Worldwide impact</div><div>4<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Medical production</div><div>5<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Opium addiction within Afghan society</div><div>6<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>The Afghan economy and opium</div><div>6.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>How the opium economy has influenced villagers options for generating income</div><div>6.2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Impacts of opium production within Afghan villages</div><div>7<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Production and Afghan governance</div><div>7.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Corruption and the erosion of the rule of law</div><div>7.2<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Nexus between the drug industry and Hawala</div><div>8<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Opium smuggling into Iran</div><div>9<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Counter-narcotics policy</div><div>9.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Alternative crops</div><div>10<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>2008 arrest of Baz Mohammed</div><div>11<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>See also</div><div>12<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>References</div><div>12.1<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>Sources</div><div>13<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>External links</div><div>History</div><div>
</div><div>A world map showing heroin production regions</div><div>Afghanistan first began producing opium in significant quantities in the mid-1950s, to supply its neighbour Iran after poppy cultivation was banned there. Afghanistan and Pakistan increased production and became major suppliers of opiates to Western Europe and North America in the mid-1970s, when political instability combined with a prolonged drought disrupted supplies from the Golden Triangle.[10]</div><div>
</div><div>Soviet period (1979–1989)</div><div>After a Soviet-backed left-wing government in Afghanistan failed to gain popular support, the Russians decided to invade. A number of resistance leaders concentrated on increasing opium production in their regions to finance their operations, regardless of its haram Islamic status, in particular Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Mullah Nasim Akhundzada, and Ismat Muslim. The production was doubled to 575 metric tons between 1982 and 1983.[11][12] (At this time the United States was pursuing an "arms-length" supporting strategy of the Afghan freedom-fighters or Mujahideen, the main purpose of which was to cripple the Soviet Union slowly into withdrawal through attrition rather than effect a quick and decisive overthrow). Hekmatyar, the leading recipient of aid from the CIA and Pakistan, developed at least six heroin refineries in Koh-i-Sultan in southwestern Pakistan, while other warlords were content to sell raw opium. Nasim Akhundzada, who controlled the traditional poppy growing region of northern Helmand, issued quotas for opium production, which he was even rumoured to enforce with torture and extreme violence. To maximise control of trafficking, Nasim maintained an office in Zahidan, Iran.[13]</div><div>
</div><div>As explained by Zbigniew Brzezinski:</div><div>
</div><div>The secret operation was an excellent idea. It drew the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? On the day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, saying, in essence: 'We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.'[14]</div><div>
</div><div>It was alleged by the Soviets on multiple occasions that US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents were helping smuggle opium out of Afghanistan, either into the West, in order to raise money for the Afghan resistance, or into the Soviet Union, in order to weaken it through drug addiction. According to Alfred McCoy, the CIA supported various Afghan drug lords, for instance Gulbuddin Hekmatyar[15] and others such as Haji Ayub Afridi.</div><div>
</div><div>Another factor was the eradication effort inside Pakistan (whose Inter-Services Intelligence were coincidentally supporters of the Mujahideen). The Pakistani government, US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other groups were involved in attempting to eliminate poppy cultivation from certain areas of the North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) bordering Afghanistan. The opium industry shifted from Pakistan into Afghanistan during the 1980s.[16][17]</div><div>
</div><div>Warlord period (1989–1994)</div><div>When the Soviet Army was forced to withdraw in 1989, a power vacuum was created. Various Mujahideen factions started fighting against each other for power. With the discontinuation of Western support, they resorted ever more to poppy cultivation to finance their military existence.</div><div>
</div><div>Rise of the Taliban (1994–2001)</div><div>During the Taliban rule, Afghanistan saw a bumper opium crop of 4,500 metric tons (4,400 long tons; 5,000 short tons) in 1999.[18]</div><div>
</div><div>In July 2000, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, collaborating with the UN to eradicate heroin production in Afghanistan, declared that growing poppies was un-Islamic, resulting in one of the world's most successful anti-drug campaigns. The Taliban enforced a ban on poppy farming via threats, forced eradication, and public punishment of transgressors. The result was a 99% reduction in the area of opium poppy farming in Taliban-controlled areas, roughly three quarters of the world's supply of heroin at the time.[19] The ban was effective only briefly due to the deposition of the Taliban in 2002.</div><div>
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</div><div>However, some people (Martin, An Intimate War, 2014), suggest that certain parties benefited from the price increase during the ban. Some[who?], even believe it was a form of market manipulation on the part of certain drug lords. Dried opium, unlike most agricultural products, can easily be stored for long periods without refrigeration or other expensive equipment. With huge stashes of opium stored in secret hideaways, the Taliban and other groups that were involved in the drug trade were in theory able to make huge personal profits during the price spikes after the 2000 ban and the chaos following the September 11 attacks.[20][21][22][23]</div><div>
</div><div>Afghan War (2001–current)</div><div>
</div><div>Opium production levels for 2005–2007</div><div>By November 2001, and with the start of the Afghan War, the collapse of the economy and the scarcity of other sources of revenue forced many of the country's farmers to resort to growing opium for export (1,300 km2 or 500 sq mi in 2004 according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime).</div><div>
</div><div>In December 2001, a number of prominent Afghans met in Bonn, Germany, under UN auspices to develop a plan to reestablish the State of Afghanistan, including provisions for a new constitution and national elections. As part of that agreement, the United Kingdom (UK) was designated the lead country in addressing counter-narcotics issues in Afghanistan. Afghanistan subsequently implemented its new constitution and held national elections. On December 7, 2004, Hamid Karzai was formally sworn in as president of a democratic Afghanistan."[24]</div><div>
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</div><div>Regional security risks and levels of opium poppy cultivation in 2007–2008.</div><div>Two of the following three growing seasons saw record levels of opium poppy cultivation. Corrupt officials may have undermined the government's enforcement efforts. Afghan farmers claimed that "government officials take bribes for turning a blind eye to the drug trade while punishing poor opium growers."[25]</div><div>
</div><div>Another obstacle to getting rid of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is the reluctant collaboration between US forces and Afghan warlords in hunting drug traffickers. In the absence of the Taliban, the warlords largely control the opium trade but are also highly useful to US forces in scouting, providing local intelligence, keeping their own territories clean from Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents, and even taking part in military operations.</div><div>
</div><div>While US and allied efforts to combat the drug trade have been stepped up, the effort is hampered by the fact that many suspected drug traffickers are now top officials in the Karzai government.[26] Estimates made in 2006 by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimate that 52% of the nation's GDP, amounting to US$2.7 billion annually, is generated by the drug trade.[27] The rise in production has been linked to the deteriorating security situation, as production is markedly lower in areas with stable security.[28] By some, the extermination of the poppy crops is not seen as a viable option because the sale of poppies constitutes the livelihood of Afghanistan's rural farmers. Some 3.3 million Afghans are involved in producing opium.[29] Opium is more profitable than wheat and destroying opium fields could possibly lead to discontent or unrest among the indigent population.[30] Some poppy eradication programs have, however, proven effective, especially in the north of Afghanistan. The opium poppy eradication program of Balkh Governor Ustad Atta Mohammad Noor between 2005 and 2007 successfully reduced poppy cultivation in Balkh Province from 7,200 hectares (18,000 acres) in 2005 to zero by 2007.[31]</div><div>
</div><div>The Afghanistan Opium Risk Assessment 2013, issued by UNODC, suggests that the Taliban has, since 2008, been supporting farmers growing poppy, as a source of income for the insurgency.[32]</div><div>
</div><div>Former US State Department Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Thomas Schweich, in a New York Times article dated July 27, 2007, asserts that opium production is protected by the government of Hamid Karzai as well as by the Taliban, as all parties to political conflict in Afghanistan, as well as criminals, benefit from opium production, and, in Schweich's opinion, the US military turns a blind eye to opium production as not being central to its anti-terrorism mission.[33][34] In March 2010, NATO rejected Russian proposals for Afghan poppy spraying, citing concerns over income of Afghan people.[35] There have also been allegations of US and European involvement in Afghanistan's drug trafficking with links to Taliban.[36]</div><div>
</div><div>On October 28, 2010, agents of Russia's Federal Service for the Control of Narcotics joined Afghan and US anti-drug forces in an operation to destroy a major drug production site near Jalalabad. In the operation, 932 kg (2,055 lb) of high quality heroin and 156 kg (344 lb) of opium, with a street value of US$250 million, and a large amount of technical equipment was destroyed. This was the first anti-drug operation to include Russian agents. According to Viktor Ivanov, Director of Russia's Federal Service for the Control of Narcotics, this marks an advance in relations between Moscow and Washington. Hamid Karzai called the operation a violation of Afghan sovereignty and international law.[37][38]</div><div>
</div><div>As had been the case in Indochina during the Vietnam War,[39] the US invasion has in fact been causal in a massive increase in opium production, the aforementioned eradication efforts being largely window dressing. A SIGAR report showed a threefold increase in area under cultivation between 2002 and 2014.[40] A December 2014 UNAIDS study[41] showed an increase of 7% in one year alone.</div><div>
</div><div>The facts of an apparently non-significant resultant change to opium production is corroborated in a report by BBC, dated to 20 July 2015:[42]</div><div>
</div><div>Nine years of intense fighting by international troops did nothing to stop the production. In fact it only became worse. The only difference was that it has been pushed out beyond the central populated zone to less governed badlands beyond the Helmand canal.</div><div>
</div><div>Foreign involvement</div><div>See also: Allegations of CIA drug trafficking § Afghanistan, CIA transnational anti-crime and anti-drug activities § Southwest Asia, and CIA activities in Afghanistan</div><div>Approximately 40,000 foreign troops attempted to manage "security" in Afghanistan, principally of 32,000 regular soldiers from 37 NATO forces: the International Security Assistance Force. 8,000 US and other special operations forces, mainly privately contracted soldiers of fortune,[40] make up the balance. There is significant resistance, both from the ideological and theocratic Taliban, especially in southern Afghanistan, and independent local warlords and drug organizations. Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of UNODC, described the situation: "There is no rule of law in most of the southern parts of Afghanistan—the bullets rule."</div><div>
</div><div>Production and distribution</div><div>Drug trafficking</div><div>The following areas of Afghanistan play a role in the drug trafficking:</div><div>
</div><div>Production</div><div>"Southern region" of Helmand and Kandahar provinces, on the border with Pakistan, which are the highest-volume areas for drug transactions. There is a traditional route from Helmand, through Pakistan, to Iran</div><div>Smuggling</div><div>Herat, in Herat Province, the Northern Alliance stronghold, which borders Iran</div><div>Faizabad, in Badakhshan province, which has borders with Tajikistan, Pakistan, and China.</div><div>Labor practices</div><div>According to the US Department of Labor's 2014 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, opium production is one of the sectors that rely on child labor in Afghanistan.[43] Poppies being the source of the crude drug, children are still recruited to harvest these flowers in the country's farming fields.[44]</div><div>
</div><div>Worldwide impact</div><div>According to European Union (EU) agencies, Afghanistan has been Europe's main heroin supplier for more than 10 years.[45] Heroin enters Europe primarily by two major land routes: the long-standing 'Balkan route' through Turkey; and, since the mid-1990s, the 'northern route', which leaves northern Afghanistan through Central Asia and on to Russia (and is sometimes colloquially referred to as the 'silk route'). There is an estimated 1.5 million (1.3–1.7 million) opioid users in the EU, with an average prevalence of 4 to 5 per 1,000.[45] In 2005, there were around 7,000 acute drug deaths, with opioids being present in the blood of 70% of the deceased.[45] There was a minimum of 49,000 seizures resulting in the interception of an estimated 19.4 metric tons (19.1 long tons; 21.4 short tons) of heroin. Countries reporting the largest number of seizures (in descending order): UK (2005), Spain, Germany, Greece, and France. Countries reporting the largest quantities of heroin seized in 2005 (in descending order): Turkey, UK, Italy, France, the Netherlands.[45]</div><div>
</div><div>Presently with the resurgence of high output production of opium and heroin in post-Taliban Afghanistan, there is an ongoing heroin addiction epidemic in Russia which is claiming 30,000 lives each year, mostly among young people. There were two and half million heroin addicts in Russia by 2009.[46]</div><div>
</div><div>Medical production</div><div>The International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) has proposed legalizing opium production for medical purposes.[citation needed] Opium can be manufactured into codeine and morphine, which are both legal pain-killers. The Governor of Afghanistan's Helmand Province, Hayatullah Hayat is a proponent of eventually legalizing opium production to create morphine.[47]</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></span></div>