Psssst..need some Heroin?

[cato2]

Remind me again about how we were to help Afganistan rid the country of terrorism? How about going after the Narco Terrorists that are growing Opium? They once again have a bumper crop that will supply the world with illegal opium. If the Taliban did one thing right, it was to go after the growers and procucers of this crop. Yet here we now sit, babysitting a government that seems to be either helpless to eradicate this problem, or so currupt that they continue to turn their backs on this. If you want to stop one form of drug addiction in the United States, this is a great opportunity.

Here is some information concerning Afganistan about the growth and production of this plant.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) heroin production estimates for the past ten years reflect substantial changes in the primary source areas. Heroin production in Southeast Asia declined dramatically, while heroin production in Southwest Asia expanded. The decrease in heroin production from Myanmar is the result of several years of unfavorable growing conditions and new government policies of forced eradication. Afghan heroin production increased during the same timeframe, with a notable decrease in 2001 purportedly as a result of the Taliban’s fatwa (religious ban) against heroin production. Afghanistan now produces over 90 percent of the world’s opium.

Afghanistan : The Golden Crescent

The UNODC estimates opium cultivation in Afghanistan increased 59 percent in 2006 to a record 165,000 hectares. US government estimates for the same time period suggest 172,600 hectares were used for poppy cultivation.

Interpol - Drugs Sub-Directorate

Another record poppy crop in Afghanistan

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press WriterSat Aug 4, 12:27 PM ET

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.

___

On the Net:

White House Office of National Drug Control Policy: Welcome to the Office of National Drug Control Policy - ONDCP

State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs: Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

Audio link to comments on new strategy by acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Thomas Schweich at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime: UNODC - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Print Story: Another record poppy crop in Afghanistan on Yahoo! News

[BrianK]

I've read other articles about poppy growth in Afganistan. What I haven't read is the tracking of manufacturers of poppy into heroin. Where are the poppy seeds going & who is processing the massive amount into herion?

Seems to me that taking out the processors would take out the sales and the profit to the farmers that won't grow lesser profitable crops.

It's one of those DUH situations. Farmers want to make major bucks for less work. There has been no success in asking them to curtail their growing DUH!!!

If that hasn't worked then maybe some bright politicians would try to think up another plan.

[cato2]

Brian, the answer is right there, it is taking place in Afganistan. Heroin is one of the final products of the plant.

[quote]The decrease in heroin production from Myanmar is the result of several years of unfavorable growing conditions and new government policies of forced eradication. Afghan heroin production increased during the same timeframe, with a notable decrease in 2001 purportedly as a result of the Taliban’s fatwa/QUOTE]

[BrianK]

[quote=cato2;3325470]Brian, the answer is right there, it is taking place in Afganistan. Heroin is one of the final products of the plant.

The decrease in heroin production from Myanmar is the result of several years of unfavorable growing conditions and new government policies of forced eradication. Afghan heroin production increased during the same timeframe, with a notable decrease in 2001 purportedly as a result of the Taliban’s fatwa/QUOTE]

I'm not grasping the answer.

[decrease in heroin production from Myanmar is the result of several years of unfavorable growing conditions and new government policies of forced eradication.] Obviously hasn't worked.

This part contradicts what logically should be working.

[Afghan heroin production increased during the same timeframe].


Seems to me that if several years of unfavorable growing conditions and new government policies of forced eradication translates to heroin production increasing, then going after the places that convert poppy seed to heroin would be the better action to take.

[cato2]

It is saying that the production occurred in Afghanistan. If it is in the form of heroin, it has been through the production phase, waiting to be shipped out. Follow the Interpol link provided for the whole story.

Production

In a labor intensive process the seed pods of poppies are scored, allowing the opium gum to flow freely. Once the gum has hardened on the outside of the seed pod it is scraped off and collected. The opium gum is allowed to dry and is chemically processed with calcium oxide and ammonium chloride to produce morphine base. The conversion of morphine into heroin involves the use of acetic anhydride and sodium carbonate. Further refining of the brown heroin base to white heroin base requires hydrochloric acid and ammonia. The final step is the use of acetone and hydrochloric acid to make heroin hydrochloride.


Source Areas



Heroin production occurs in three primary regions: Southwest Asia (Afghanistan), Southeast Asia (Myanmar), and Latin America (Colombia and Mexico).



The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) heroin production estimates for the past ten years reflect substantial changes in the primary source areas. Heroin production in Southeast Asia declined dramatically, while heroin production in Southwest Asia expanded. The decrease in heroin production from Myanmar is the result of several years of unfavorable growing conditions and new government policies of forced eradication. Afghan heroin production increased during the same timeframe, with a notable decrease in 2001 purportedly as a result of the Taliban’s fatwa (religious ban) against heroin production. Afghanistan now produces over 90 percent of the world’s opium.

[Scrappy]

So what's the point?

[cato2]

1.) Perhaps to eradicate most of the illegal heroin production in the world to begin with, emanating from one country.

2.)To deny funding for gorilla groups operating in Afghanistan, and funding terrorism.

DRUGS AND THE FINANCING OF TERRORISM

By Pierre-arnaud Chouvy

The financing of terrorism through illicit drug trafficking has been touted as a major problem since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Indeed, during the last decade, Afghanistan has been the most important opium producing country in the world. It was under Taliban rule in 1999 that opium production reached its height with a 4,581-ton yield. Moreover, the fact that al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden found a safe haven in that country, raised concerns about the possible emergence of a more global and pernicious alliance between drug traffickers and terrorists. But three years after the ouster of the Taliban, Afghanistan's opium production is expected to exceed even 1999's record high, thus raising concerns that the country is on the verge of becoming a "narco-state" and a bastion of "narco-terrorism." Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, warned of "mounting evidence of drug money being used to finance criminal activities, including terrorism," and declared that "fighting drug trafficking equals fighting terrorism."

The Jamestown Foundation

Drugs, Terrorism, and Regional Security
The US is scoring a major victory against global terrorism by defeating the al- Qaida network in Afghanistan, but until we tackle Afghanistan's drug problem head on we cannot consider the victory to be a permanent one.

Too long the international community has ignored or downplayed the security risks inherent in the drug trade, which derives from Afghanistan's poppy-crop. For most of the past decade, Afghanistan was the world's largest single producer of opium, and with every passing year it turned more and more of its opium into heroin. The drug traffic emanating from Afghanistan's poppy harvest, and the opium and heroin manufactured from it, have undermined the security of all the states of the region.
But prior to September 11, it was difficult to convince US policymakers that Afghanistan's drug industry was a US problem, and even now we have no concrete strategy to deal with renewed drug cultivation in Afghanistan in any sort of timely fashion.
Drugs, Terrorism, and Regional Security - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Just to name a few. Unless you do not mind addicts and Americans who are being killed by weapons that are being purchased by the profits derived from the sales of the Opium. And I know you do not want that. But many people are not aware of this connection.