‘Afghan opium exports make up half of GDP’

[Neo]

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Saturday, November 17, 2007

‘Afghan opium exports make up half of GDP’

* UN says of $4 billion trade, only one billion goes to farmers

VIENNA: The value of Afghanistan’s smuggled opium exports is equivalent to more than half of its gross domestic product, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said Friday.

Aside from 19th-century China, “no other country in the world has ever produced narcotics on such a deadly scale,” the Vienna-based organisation said in a statement upon publication of its 2007 Afghan Opium Survey. UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa said it was in the interest of Western forces battling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan to intervene to smash the illicit trade.

“Opium is now equivalent to more than half (53 percent) of the country’s licit GDP,” the UNODC said in its report. The total value of opium and heroin exports to neighbouring countries was four billion dollars in 2007, up 29 percent from the previous year, while GDP for 2007 was 7.5 billion dollars, according to the Afghan government, it said. In 2006, opiate exports from the country were worth 3.1 billion dollars, or 45 percent of GDP, the report added.

Farmers’ share: It noted that about one billion dollars went to the farmers, while the rest went to district officials, insurgents and warlords who “control the business of producing and distributing the drugs” and drug traffickers. The amount of land used for opium poppy cultivation increased by 17 percent in 2007, while production went up 34 percent, the UNODC report also said,

It noted however that while opium cultivation was on the rise in the southwest of the country, a growing number of provinces in northern Afghanistan were becoming opium-free. “The Afghan opium situation looks grim, but it is not yet hopeless,” Costa said in the report. The UNODC calculated that Afghan traffickers made 1.7 billion dollars by exporting opium, up 1.2 billion in 2006, and 2.3 billion by exporting its derivatives heroin and morphine.

The value of the drugs increases “with every border crossing” and so “the potential windfall for criminals, insurgents and terrorists is staggering and runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Costa said upon publication of the report. afp

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

[roadrunner]

Afghanistan is gone to the dogs now I think. The US will leave eventually, some sort of agreement will be reached. Pakistan will stay out (or may just fund the new government with weaponry). Karzai will be seeking refuge in Pakistan again.

[Neo]

Indeed...and at the end of the day we'll be cleaning off their mess again!
Business as usual.

[Always Neutral]

Afghanistan is gone to the dogs now I think. The US will leave eventually, some sort of agreement will be reached. Pakistan will stay out (or may just fund the new government with weaponry). Karzai will be seeking refuge in Pakistan again.

BRILLIANT FORESIGHT. If you are not already the Foreign Minister in the care taker Govt. of Pakistan maybe you should apply for the same job ?

Regards

[Spring Onion]

Indeed...and at the end of the day we'll be cleaning off their mess again!
Business as usual.

yup that is
once again we will face another influx of Afghan Refugees

[Spring Onion]

Afghanistan is gone to the dogs now I think. The US will leave eventually, some sort of agreement will be reached. Pakistan will stay out (or may just fund the new government with weaponry). Karzai will be seeking refuge in Pakistan again.

RR this time Karzai will take refuge in US in his papa's lap

[Awesome]

I don't understand why the US isn't stopping the Opium trade. It's not like the US doesn't have the spare change to fund this half of the Afghan GDP. And it's not like its not stoppable. Taliban brought it to a near halt and Opium trade was a risky business then.

Now Taliban is probably involved in this trade and using the same money to fight the US. So why there is no motivation from the Americans to stop this is beyond me.

[A.Rahman]

So why there is no motivation from the Americans to stop this is beyond me.

Maybe US army makes profit by smuggling Afghani opium in C-130's?

[Flintlock]

I don't understand why the US isn't stopping the Opium trade. It's not like the US doesn't have the spare change to fund this half of the Afghan GDP. And it's not like its not stoppable. Taliban brought it to a near halt and Opium trade was a risky business then.

Now Taliban is probably involved in this trade and using the same money to fight the US. So why there is no motivation from the Americans to stop this is beyond me.

The US can't enforce law in Afghanistan. That is upto the government of Afghanistan to ensure that farmers don't grow opium. Unfortunately the govt. doesn't control much of actual ground...so even they cannot do anything about it.

[roadrunner]

I don't understand why the US isn't stopping the Opium trade. It's not like the US doesn't have the spare change to fund this half of the Afghan GDP. And it's not like its not stoppable. Taliban brought it to a near halt and Opium trade was a risky business then.

US and Karzai have cut deals with the druggie warlords like Dostum and others. Side with us, don't attack us, and noone will bother you. They seem to think it'll work, I don't think it will. People of Afghanistan don't want drugs, they want a normal living like any other country, and putting trust in people like Dostum to "do the right thing" is like expeting pigs to start flying or something.

Now Taliban is probably involved in this trade and using the same money to fight the US. So why there is no motivation from the Americans to stop this is beyond me.

Hmm, not so sure. Take a look at this map of poppy cultivation from 2005. All the poppy fields are located in Northern Alliance commander dominated areas, not Pashtun areas.

[dk33]

The US can't enforce law in Afghanistan. That is upto the government of Afghanistan to ensure that farmers don't grow opium. Unfortunately the govt. doesn't control much of actual ground...so even they cannot do anything about it.

You have to be kidding!

The US does not enforce law? I think I have seen three segments on the major US TV networks in the last month that highlighted the US military spearheading efforts against the drug trade. At this point the US is the only one attempting to "enforce law", or at least pretending to, in Afghanistan - Their policies have completely failed - it is the same reason they failed in Latin America as well. You cannot combat the drug trade without providing the people growing the crop with a viable alternate means of income. Even their development work, as highlighted in numerous articles in the Washington Post and NY Times, has been highly flawed, painstakingly slow, and in most cases non existent.

If the only thing they want to do is kill a dozen Taliban every other day by bombing them from their Warthogs, then they are going to be at this for a very long time.

RR:

Very interesting map -

[Flintlock]

You have to be kidding!

The US does not enforce law? I think I have seen three segments on the major US TV networks in the last month that highlighted the US military spearheading efforts against the drug trade. At this point the US is the only one attempting to "enforce law", or at least pretending to, in Afghanistan - Their policies have completely failed - it is the same reason they failed in Latin America as well. You cannot combat the drug trade without providing the people growing the crop with a viable alternate means of income. Even their development work, as highlighted in numerous articles in the Washington Post and NY Times, has been highly flawed, painstakingly slow, and in most cases non existent.

If the only thing they want to do is kill a dozen Taliban every other day by bombing them from their Warthogs, then they are going to be at this for a very long time.

LOL... I was under the impression that the US forces were just there to hunt Taliban and the law and order had been given over to the Afghan Govt.

Anyways, they don't have enough men on the ground to cover so much territory...

[Neo]

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I don't understand why the US isn't stopping the Opium trade. It's not like the US doesn't have the spare change to fund this half of the Afghan GDP. And it's not like its not stoppable. Taliban brought it to a near halt and Opium trade was a risky business then.

Now Taliban is probably involved in this trade and using the same money to fight the US. So why there is no motivation from the Americans to stop this is beyond me.

US has the power and means to end narcotic business but then the Afghan economy will collapse creating more troubles for the Americans. Not only Taliban but also Kabul is (legally) involved in narcotics industry.