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Afghanistan Poppy Cultivation Skyrockets

 
 
92b16vx
 
Reply Sun 5 Aug, 2007 02:18 pm
Afghanistan Poppy Cultivation Skyrockets


Aug 4, 11:11 PM (ET)

By MATTHEW LEE

WASHINGTON (AP) - Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world's near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say.

As President Bush prepares for weekend talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, divisions within the U.S. administration and among NATO allies have delayed release of a $475 million counternarcotics program for Afghanistan, where intelligence officials see growing links between drugs and the Taliban, the officials said.

U.N. figures to be released in September are expected to show that Afghanistan's poppy production has risen up to 15 percent since 2006 and that the country now accounts for 95 percent of the world's crop, 3 percentage points more than last year, officials familiar with preliminary statistics told The Associated Press.

But counterdrug proposals by some U.S. officials have met fierce resistance, including boosting the amount of forcible poppy field destruction in provinces that grow the most, officials said. The approach also would link millions of dollars in development aid to benchmarks on eradication; arrests and prosecutions of narcotraders, corrupt officials; and on alternative crop production.

Those ideas represent what proponents call an "enhanced carrot-and-stick approach" to supplement existing anti-drug efforts. They are the focus of the new $475 million program outlined in a 995-page report, the release of which has been postponed twice and may be again delayed due to disagreements, officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because parts of the report remain classified.

Counternarcotics agents at the State Department had wanted to release a 123-page summary of the strategy last month and then again last week, but were forced to hold off because of concerns it may not be feasible, the officials said.

Now, even as Bush sees Karzai on Sunday and Monday at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Md., a tentative release date of Aug. 9, timed to follow the meetings, appears in jeopardy. Some in the administration, along with NATO allies Britain and Canada, seek revisions that could delay it until at least Aug. 13, the officials said.

The program represents a 13 percent increase over the $420 million in U.S. counternarcotics aid to Afghanistan last year. It would adopt a bold new approach to "coercive eradication" and set out criteria for local officials to receive development assistance based on their cooperation, the officials said.

Although the existing aid, supplemented mainly by Britain and Canada and supported by the NATO force in Afghanistan, has achieved some results - notably an expected rise in the number of "poppy-free" provinces from six to at least 12 and possibly 16, mainly in the north - production elsewhere has soared, they said.

"Afghanistan is providing close to 95 percent of the world's heroin," the State Department's top counternarcotics official, Tom Schweich, said at a recent conference. "That makes it almost a sole-source supplier" and presents a situation "unique in world history."

Almost all the heroin from Afghanistan makes its way to Europe; most of the heroin in the U.S. comes from Latin America.

Afghanistan last year accounted for 92 percent of global opium production, compared with 70 percent in 2000 and 52 percent a decade earlier. The higher yields in Afghanistan brought world production to a record high of 7,286 tons in 2006, 43 percent more than in 2005.

A State Department inspector general's report released Friday noted that the counternarcotics assistance is dwarfed by the estimated $38 billion "street value" of Afghanistan's poppy crop, if all is converted to heroin, and said eradication goals were "not realistic."

Schweich, an advocate of the now-stalled plan, has argued for more vigorous eradication efforts, particularly in southern Helmand province, responsible for some 80 percent of Afghanistan's poppy production. It is where, he says, growers must be punished for ignoring good-faith appeals to switch to alternative, but less lucrative, crops.

"They need to be dealt with in a more severe way," he said at the conference sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "There needs to be a coercive element, that's something we're not going to back away from or shy away from."

But, in fact, many question whether this is the right approach with Afghanistan mired in poverty and in the throes of an insurgency run by the Taliban and residual al-Qaida forces.

Along with Britain, whose troops patrol Helmand, elements in the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, the Defense Department and White House Office of National Drug Control Policy have expressed concern, saying that more raids will drive farmers with no other income to join extremists.

There is also skepticism about the incentives in the new strategy from those who believe development assistance should not be denied to local communities because of poppy growth, officials said.

Opponents argue that the benefits of such aid, new roads and other infrastructure, schools and hospitals, will themselves be powerful tools to combat the narcotrade once constructed.

One U.S. official said the plan was a good one but might take another year or two before it can be effectively introduced.





Aren't we there doing something in that country? I seem to remember something about Afghanisomething on the news.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,487 • Replies: 22
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Pinochet73
 
  1  
Reply Sun 5 Aug, 2007 06:36 pm
@92b16vx,
Defeating the Taliban is more important than defeating Afghani narco-trafficking.
92b16vx
 
  1  
Reply Sun 5 Aug, 2007 06:51 pm
@Pinochet73,
Pinochet73;29277 wrote:
Defeating the Taliban is more important than defeating Afghani narco-trafficking.


Haha, only you would think that the two are not one.
Drnaline
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Aug, 2007 12:18 pm
@92b16vx,
Defeat the Taliban and what happens to the trafficing? Two bird with one stone.
92b16vx
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Aug, 2007 03:02 pm
@Drnaline,
Drnaline;29311 wrote:
Defeat the Taliban and what happens to the trafficing? Two bird with one stone.


Destroy the poppy fields and a large portion of their funding goes away.
0 Replies
 
Pinochet73
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Aug, 2007 03:10 pm
@92b16vx,
92b16vx;29282 wrote:
Haha, only you would think that the two are not one.


Gimme a break. Narco-trafficking has always existed in many, many desperate lands. Afghanistan has been 'contraband central' for centuries.:FU1:
0 Replies
 
Silverchild79
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Aug, 2007 04:21 pm
@92b16vx,
Pinochet73;29277 wrote:
Defeating the Taliban is more important than defeating Afghani narco-trafficking.


92b16vx;29282 wrote:
Haha, only you would think that the two are not one.



this is true, the poppy cultivation is in the Taliban controlled areas

Hamid Karzai (sp?) is meeting with Bush this week to discuss just that.

In related news apperently the "religion of peace" allows cultivation and trafficking of hard drugs, just not education for women
Pinochet73
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Aug, 2007 04:30 pm
@Silverchild79,
Silverchild79;29378 wrote:
this is true, the poppy cultivation is in the Taliban controlled areas

Hamid Karzai (sp?) is meeting with Bush this week to discuss just that.

In related news apperently the "religion of peace" allows cultivation and trafficking of hard drugs, just not education for women


There's no way to stop smuggling and/ or contraband-trafficking in Afghanistan. No one has ever quelled that particular Afghani instinct.
92b16vx
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Aug, 2007 04:52 pm
@Pinochet73,
Pinochet73;29384 wrote:
There's no way to stop smuggling and/ or contraband-trafficking in Afghanistan. No one has ever quelled that particular Afghani instinct.


There's no excuse for poppy production to UP in a country we are fighting a war in. It has increased by metric TONS since we invaded. There's no excuse for this...unless....naw, you don't want the unless.
0 Replies
 
Red cv
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Aug, 2007 06:04 pm
@92b16vx,
I say find a legit buyer for their poppy seeds, instead of trying to enforce our laws against drugs on these people help them sell their crop to a drug company.
Ken V
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Aug, 2007 06:40 pm
@92b16vx,
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush-Karzai-Text.html?pagewanted=all

Fortunately, there is a simple solution, successful in Turkey since the late 1970's and in India since 1947. The Afghan government can buy the opium harvest, use some at home for medical purposes and sell the rest to foreign governments and hospitals. The India program, using the medicines internally, earns its government $40 million per year.
Johann Hari - Archive
The Senlis Council - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For a full report, including reports on the Turkey and India programs, see
Poppy for Medicine - The Senlis CouncilDoc suggests opium for medicinal heroin

Thus, an expensive crop destruction program which alienates the populace could be replaced by a profitable, popular venture. Let's hope that Karzai or a legitimate successor can hold out until a new US President takes office in Jan. 2009.
0 Replies
 
92b16vx
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Aug, 2007 07:22 pm
@Red cv,
Red;29424 wrote:
I say find a legit buyer for their poppy seeds, instead of trying to enforce our laws against drugs on these people help them sell their crop to a drug company.


So, you support supporting the taliban islamofascist agenda, as long as it is for a "good cause"?

Besides, most pharmaceutical scheduele II controlled narcotics are pure, or semi synthetic, Unless you meant we should have a run on poppy seed buns at Burger King.
socalgolfguy
 
  1  
Reply Tue 7 Aug, 2007 01:01 pm
@92b16vx,
92b16vx;29443 wrote:
So, you support supporting the taliban islamofascist agenda, as long as it is for a "good cause"?

Besides, most pharmaceutical scheduele II controlled narcotics are pure, or semi synthetic, Unless you meant we should have a run on poppy seed buns at Burger King.


I think she had her tongue firmly planted in her cheek...
0 Replies
 
Ken V
 
  1  
Reply Wed 8 Aug, 2007 04:19 am
@92b16vx,
by Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato Institute (Nov. 2004). http://www.cato.org/pubs/fpbriefs/fpb84.pdfDrug Policy Alliance: Experts Tackle U.S. Drug Policy in AfghanistanDrug Policy Alliance: Officials Debate Strategy As Afghan Poppy Crop Hits New Record

Carnahan's proposal is that I posted August 6, Sununu's is wasteful and a drain on US taxpayers, and as for Biden's 'disrupting the cartels that are moving the drugs,' well, lets hope he reads this. US & NATO attempts at doing so have created a role for the Taliban.
0 Replies
 
Crito
 
  1  
Reply Wed 8 Aug, 2007 06:21 pm
@92b16vx,
Still kills fewer Americans than alcohol. Bring back prohibition and make drinking beer a felony, for the sake of the children!
Ten Most Dangerous Drugs
Crito
 
  1  
Reply Wed 8 Aug, 2007 06:25 pm
@92b16vx,
But I'm sure the makers of Oxycontin don't appreciate the free market competition.
OxyContin Awareness and its other dangers

What drugs you get hooked on is a decision other people should make for you.
0 Replies
 
socalgolfguy
 
  1  
Reply Wed 8 Aug, 2007 07:16 pm
@Crito,
Crito;29762 wrote:
Still kills fewer Americans than alcohol. Bring back prohibition and make drinking beer a felony, for the sake of the children!
Ten Most Dangerous Drugs


The breakdown of family values and the erosion of principles and discipline have led to anarchy by the liberals and the ACLU. You, sir, are an example.
0 Replies
 
Crito
 
  1  
Reply Wed 8 Aug, 2007 07:22 pm
@92b16vx,
Why? Because I want to make alcohol illegal?

You, on the other hand, don't really care how many children die, as long as they're obedient like dogs. That makes you, sir, the worst kind of hypocrite, a selfish, self-centered one. And FWIW, since I'm sure you'll expound on Christian values next, that's the exact opposite message the Bible gives us. The Bible speaks of love, which is self-less-ness; that is, putting other people's interests above even your own, like Jesus did.
Silverchild79
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Aug, 2007 12:28 am
@92b16vx,
the bible also speaks of the permissibility of slavery, the stoning of children, & the oppression of women and homosexuals.

Alcohol illegal? that's a laugh, prohibition wouldn't last one day in 2007 (BTW I had a Sam Adams tonight and I hope it hurts your feelings). Besides that there's nobody left to staff the office. Because the entire prohibition task force was moved into the band new marijuana task in 1932 when alcohol was made legal again.

If alcohol kills people: then guns kill people, keyboards are responsible for asshat noobs, and I can sue Jenna Haze for my Carpol Tunnel

why medical science has even told us that 1-3 units daily of beer or wine (1-2 units if you're female), lowers your risk for cancer and heart attack. Why outlaw that? Because some irresponsible people abuse it? If that's the barometer I'm operating on then my first act after readin your post is making the internet itself illegal.
0 Replies
 
Crito
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Aug, 2007 01:08 am
@92b16vx,
A children's aspirin is 10X more effective at preventing heart attacks and the anti-oxidants in wine are 10X more concentrated in balsamic vinegar. And as an added bonus, neither aspirin nor vinegar cause people to drive off the road and hit trees.

I'm afraid you'll have to come up with better excuses than those to continue pursuing your hedonistic pleasures.
0 Replies
 
 

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