An Afghan policeman destroys poppies during a campaign against narcotics in Kunar province, April 29, 2014. Parwiz Parwiz/REUTERS
Business Insider: Heroin is driving a sinister trend in Afghanistan
* Afghanistan looks set for another year of record opium production in 2017, maintaining its role as the world's biggest producer.
* As opium production has grown, the Taliban has assumed a bigger role in it, deriving much of its income from the drug trade.
* As the Taliban relies more and more on drugs, many of its fighters are less likely to accept reconciliation with the US-backed government.
Afghanistan has long been one of the world's biggest producers of opium, which is used to make heroin, and the Taliban has made a lucrative business from taxing and providing security to producers and smugglers in the region.
But the militant group has expanded its role in that drug trade considerably, boosting its profits at a time when it is making decisive gains against the Afghan government and its US backers.
According to a New York Times report, the Taliban has gotten involved in every stage of the drug business. Afghan police and their US advisers find heroin-refining labs with increasingly frequency, but the labs are easy to replace.
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WNU Editor: There are many factors on why Afghanistan is consumed by conflict. But if it was not for the drugs, the war in Afghanistan would probably be a lot more smaller (if not gone) than what it is today.
Maybe now that the U.S. has declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency someone in Washington have the sense and will to kick out some lobbyists and allow the Afghani's to grow another crop - cotton or hemp perhaps. Or maybe some influential American Industries will continue to allow our military to bleed so that they can maintain their own, profit before people, grip on certain markets. The Taliban and opium are very profitable bad-guys after-all.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of this money goes to arming local fighters. But what if the US instead of alienating these farmers by destroying their livelihoods had instead reached out to them and formed financial ties. Maybe earn some good will and leverage. We buy a lot of opium for medicine from Mexico, Turkey, and India.
ReplyDeleteThe poppy trade far more lucrative than any other crop we have tried to introduce as a substitute.
ReplyDeleteI had met a guy who, while serving there, told me about his buddy whose job it was to help wipe out the trade...a total failure, and he wrote a book about it.
The opioid mess in our nation now much more involved with heroin from Mexico and the more deadly readily accessible fentanyl, which can be bought online
I like that idea Steve.
ReplyDeleteIt might actually be a very great idea.