UN: Afghan opium production up by 61% under NATO’s watch

**Sol Invictus** · 10-13-2011, 06:57 PM

Originally Posted by PressTV

The UN said in its report on Tuesday that cultivation of the poppy crop reached 131,000 hectares in 2011, seven percent higher than in 2010 “due to insecurity and high prices”, AFP reported.

The report added that overall opium production in Afghanistan would potentially rise by 61 percent in 2011 as the crop yield per hectare rose markedly from last year.

The price of dry opium also rose 43 percent this year compared to 2010, and total farm-gate income is set to increase by 133 percent to reach $1.4 billion in 2011, or nine percent of Afghanistan’s GDP.

“If the profits of manufacturing and trafficking heroin are added to this figure, opium is a significant part of the Afghan economy and provides considerable funding to the insurgency and fuels corruption,” the UN report pointed out.

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**~~Aces High~~** · 10-13-2011, 07:04 PM

Could it be that like the Viet Cong the taliban have put down their weapons and picked up their hoes to fight the war on another front.
Flood the west with heroin.

**~~Joe McCarthy~~** · 10-13-2011, 07:06 PM

Simple explanation for this: Whereas under the Taliban opium production was cracked down upon, now that the Taliban is an insurgent group they're encouraging its cultivation in order to finance the insurgency.

**The Lawspeaker** · 10-13-2011, 07:16 PM

Let's just rehash an old post as I still feel the same way about it:

Originally Posted by Civis Batavi

You know.. the daft thing is: why are we fighting this expensive war on drugs while we can defeat them with a war of drugs ? There are plenty of places in the U.S.A or Southern Europe (hell.. we can do it too in a couple of greenhouses somewhere in Northern Europe or the Northern USA/Canada) where we could grow cannabis, opium and maybe even coca on a commercial basis and put these mofo's out of business. Big time.

And while we're at it: start exporting. Here's some heroin, Afghanistan. Made in Europe.

Legalise it all and make the price drop and sell (just put the regular tax and excise on it) it at your local chemist (pharmacies) and the soft drugs in the pub. Just have a buyer register himself with the chemist that he has bought something there and send the name, address and amount to his health insurance (just in case it would be needed).

The thing is: those Afghans can't compete and neither can the Pakistani, Burmese, Colombians and Thai and all the rest of 'em. Let's put them out of business and these people growing it won't need any subsidies for the time being so.. it's a nice little earner and it could grow us out of the crisis.

And ooh: before those Afghans then try to do it with grapes, pomegranate, rice, apricots, wheat, cereal, melons and pistachio (their traditional crops): let's grow that too. Let them eat rats: good luck starving, fools !

**Sol Invictus** · 10-13-2011, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by Centre for Research on Globalization

The United Nations has announced that opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has soared and is expected to increase by 59% in 2006. The production of opium is estimated to have increased by 49% in relation to 2005.

The Western media in chorus blame the Taliban and the warlords. The Bush administration is said to be committed to curbing the Afghan drug trade: "The US is the main backer of a huge drive to rid Afghanistan of opium... "

Yet in a bitter irony, US military presence has served to restore rather than eradicate the drug trade.

What the reports fail to acknowledge is that the Taliban government was instrumental in implementing a successful drug eradication program, with the support and collaboration of the UN.

Implemented in 2000-2001, the Taliban's drug eradication program led to a 94 percent decline in opium cultivation. In 2001, according to UN figures, opium production had fallen to 185 tons. Immediately following the October 2001 US led invasion, production increased dramatically, regaining its historical levels.

The Vienna based UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that the 2006 harvest will be of the order of 6,100 tonnes, 33 times its production levels in 2001 under the Taliban government (3200 % increase in 5 years).

Cultivation in 2006 reached a record 165,000 hectares compared with 104,000 in 2005 and 7,606 in 2001 under the Taliban (See table below).

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**The Lawspeaker** · 10-13-2011, 07:21 PM

Of course it's NATO and the US government that profits but... if we could grow it here our farmers could profit. Damn I actually like the idea.. a lot.

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