Afia Ambreen
In 2017, opium cultivation in Afghanistan reached a record high, with multifaceted impacts on the country. According to a joint survey released by the United Nations and the Afghan government Afghanistan’s opium production has almost doubled this year compared to 2016, while areas that are under poppy cultivation rose by 63 percent. Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said the area under opium poppy cultivation has also increased to a record 810,488 acres in 2017, up 63 percent compared with the 496,671 acres that cultivated the poppy in 2016. The increase in production is mainly result of the increase in the area under poppy cultivation, while an increase in opium yield also contributed. The largest increase in yields came in the south, in poppy-heavy provinces like Helmand, where the average yield grew by 19 percent. In the country’s north-eastern region, the yield from the opium poppy rose by 14 percent. Afghanistan is the world’s top cultivator of the poppy from which opium and heroin are produced. The 2017 record levels of opium production and poppy cultivation create multiple challenges for the country, its neighbors and the many other countries that are transit for or destination of Afghan opiates.
It is important to mention that the U.S. opioid problem has been named the worst drug crisis in America’s history. For the past ten years, the U.S. has seen a dramatic increase in patient admissions to opioid abuse programs. Approximately 900,000 pounds of heroin from Afghanistan end up in the U.S. every year. Afghanistan is the only country on earth that can supply enough opium to feed America’s opioid appetite. Overdoses from heroin, an opium derivative, and other opioids kill more than 27,000 people each year. The Center for Disease Control recently announced that the rates of heroin abuse quadrupled in the U.S. in the last decade. Where are these drugs coming from? How are the war on terror and the war on opium connected? The opium problem is not just America’s problem. The war continues in Afghanistan, and the two struggles are intimately connected. The US alleges Taliban for sponsoring the poppy crop however; the latest UN report contradicts the allegation. As per the report, poppy cultivation has expanded in Northern Afghan areas of Balkh, Jowzjan, Baghlan, and Sari Pul provinces. These provinces were entirely free of poppy a few years ago and are known to be out of Taliban control.
On the other hand, since the U.S. invasion in 2001, unemployment in Afghanistan has increased dramatically, from 25 percent in 2014 to 40 percent in 2015, due to increased security concerns of international and national companies. Companies and investors have pulled out of the country, creating even more economic instability. According to the United Nations, Afghanistan supplied the world with 90 percent of the heroin in 2015. Despite the $7 billion effort by the U.S. to stop poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the problem persists. Illegal poppy field cultivation is at an all-time high. The international community has attempted to solve the problem through a focus on law enforcement and alternative livelihood projects for farmers in affected regions. Still, the rise in opium production in Afghanistan demonstrates the failure of the international community’s attempt to solve this crisis.
Approximately 40,000 foreign troops attempted to manage security in Afghanistan, principally of 32,000 regular soldiers from 37 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces: the International Security Assistance Force. 8,000 US and other special operations forces, mainly privately contracted soldier of fortune, make up the balance. There is significant resistance, both from the ideological/theocratic Taliban, especially in southern Afghanistan, and also independent local warlords and drug organizations. Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), described the situation this way: “There is no rule of law in most of the southern parts of Afghanistan—the bullets rule.”
Financing the black and clandestine operations through secret means requires huge funds. Apart from the known official funding, organizations like CIA and Black Water etc. do adopt hidden sources of income as well. War torn countries like Afghanistan provide ideal environment for such illegal activities. US soldiers and contractors do not require visa restrictions for Afghanistan, nor do the laws of the land apply to them. Hence nothing stops them from violating Afghan state law as well as from supporting and sponsoring illegal money generation activities like poppy production and drug patronage. Reportedly, high numbers of Afghan Defence Forces personnel are also habitual poppy users and hence carry low morale and physical health. This all happens in Afghanistan under very watchful eyes of the elite superpower of the world. One can only wish that the US feels for the victims of their game plan on poppy. The US should have sympathies for her own people as well as for the people around the world. Along with domestic control of the menace, the US should also take practical steps to control the menace in Afghanistan.
