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AFGHAN DRUGS |
Posted on Saturday, September 08, 2007 - 10:37 PM
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The problem gets worse with even greater quantities of opiates being produced
by Afghan farmers. The way the 'official' US line has it, these illicit drugs
are funding the Taleban war effort, but this is to ignore that the Taleban are
only resurgent in certain parts of Afghanistan and therefore the Taleban can
only be partly responsible. Meanwhile these illicit drugs are by far the countries
largest export, bigger than anything in the 'white market.' The money that is
engendered at every level in government both national and regional,
including the ability of the freewheeling warlords to hold down their regions
and arm their supporters, has been and remains dependent on the drugs trade.
But various means of destruction employed, despite claims of some success, have
to stand alongside new data on increased acreage and greater yields.
Our PRESCRIPTION is to have the Afghan government working alongside
allied and friendly governments who must fund the solution, to impose an intervention
buying regime for one harvest, paying a price marginally below the current price
of grain (or whatever alternative crop is indicated and to provide that seed
for the next growing season). That all the intervention-purchased poppy crop
should be burned, less whatever part international Big Pharma would be prepared
to buy-in for legitimate pharmaceutical use. That it be made clear that any
part of the poppy crop discovered to have been withheld from the intervention,
will be seized and destroyed without compensation of cash, or free seed for
the following season.
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Comments
This problem has to be addressed I believe, from a different angle, perhaps genetic modification, so that the crop eradicates itself through not being capable of producing seed.
I just can't see how this crop can be eradicated through farm economics alone.
The heroin is in demand and is supported by the western and eastern users. The dealers will constantly raise the price to ensure supply to addicts, thereby making more money for the dealers, and creating more criminal activity to supply the money.
It is a vicious business, and an almost intractable problem, a durable easy-to-manage poppy crop, ready market, no limits on supply, or demand, drugs for cash and weapons.
If we place ourselves in the position of the farmer, it is not too difficult a choice to make, in a country as poor and corrupt as Afghanistan.
As the episode with the Hunt brothers of Texas showed, you cannot corner the market in silver. So it is with the drug producers of the world. The market creates demand, suppliers react to economic incentive. If you buy the poppy crop, it will expand, the more you buy, the greater it will expand.
Every front street has a back street, every sanctioned economy has a shadow unsanctioned economy. Trade flourishes when people come together.
When durable goods are produces by robots in factories, will all the bad go away? The unemployable will always participate in the underground economy.
The more meaningful work becomes, providing living wages to workers, then and only then will the demand side begin to diminish. It will never go away completely.
Drugs or poppy cultivation is the main threat to the creation of a stable and developed Afghanistan and it is considered as the main avenue by which former Taliban and al-Qaida forces could keep their hope of return alive.
Therefore, it is not only the Afghan problem but also the problem of the international community and they both have to jointly fight it. My understanding is that drugs is one problem but the bigger problem is the ill-conceived war on drugs in Afghanistan, as it threatens the newly established democracy, developmental trends and even social bonding. Drugs contribute to a third of GDP. Therefore, this huge industry cannot be cured without a genuine alternative livelihood to farmers. Otherwise the miscalculated war on drugs will only bring highly undesirable consequences both for Afghanistan and global nations.
The opium business is growing more organized day by day and I am afraid after a short time, no body will be able to stop it, ever!. For the past seven years both national and international partners have been repeating the same statement with different wording that the situation is dire, and that there is no other viable way to make a living. Poppy farming offers income and employment and the Afghan authorities as well as the international community need time to introduce credible alternatives. How long do they need?!
The experiences of the past year have shown that paying farmers to eradicate poppy fields only encourages more of them to grow. Thus, there is broad agreement among the anti-drug groups that only costly crop-substitution programs along with serious law enforcement will achieve eradication.
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