Opium production in Afghanistan has hit a record $3 billion this year, accounting for more than 90% of the world’s illegal output, according to a new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Production is concentrated mainly in the strife-torn south of the country, where the Taliban—who banned poppy cultivation when they were in power—now profit from the trade, the report alleges. The reports says the area under opium cultivation rose to 193,000 hectares from 165,000 in 2006, while the harvest soared by more than a third to 8,200 tons from 6,100 tons. The amount of Afghan land used for growing opium was larger than the total under coca cultivation in Latin America, the report says.
The report also found that the number of opium-free provinces in the centre and north of the country more than doubled from six to 13, revealing an intensification of markedly divergent trends between the north and south.
In the centre and north, where the government has increased its authority and presence, cultivation is dropping. In Balkh province cultivation collapsed from 7,200 hectares last year to zero. By contrast, 80% of opium poppies were grown in a handful of southern provinces along the border with Pakistan.
In Helmand, cultivation rose by 48% to 102,770 hectares. With a population of 2.5 million, Helmand has become the world’s biggest source of illicit drugs, surpassing the output of entire countries like Colombia (coca), Morocco (hashish) and Burma (opium).
UNODC director Antonio Maria Costa called for a more determined effort by the Afghan government and the international community to combat the threats of drugs and insurgency. “Opium cultivation is inversely related to the degree of government control,” he said. “Where anti-government forces reign, poppies flourish.” Noting that the Taliban have reversed their 2000 edict banning cultivation, he added, “What used to be considered a sin is now being encouraged.” (Dawn, Pakistan, Aug. 27)
See our last posts on Afghanistan and the opium war.
Afghanistan: US accused in more civilian deaths
From the New York Times, Aug. 27:
An increasingly familiar circumstance.
Media manipulation on opium cultivation figures
Peter Gorman writes on his blog Aug. 29:
Did Gorman shame the Times into correcting an error? The story by David Rohde in the Aug. 28 print edition states clearly: “…the amount of land in Afghanistan used for opium production is now larger than the amount of land used for coca cultivation in all Latin America.” But a Google News search for the offending text (sans clarifying reference to coca) indicates that it appears (verbatim) in the Detroit Free Press. Strangely, Rohde’s piece also shows up on the Google search—yet the reference to the Andean nations does not appear in the actual text. This indicates the text was there when the Google-bots first crawled it, but has since been removed. The Free Press presumably picked it up from the Times before it was removed. The version of Rohde’s piece in the International Herald Tribune states (correctly) that “Afghanistan still produces more narcotics than Colombia, Peru and Bolivia combined.” (Emphasis added.)
So are the folks at Times (whose garbled Mexico coverage we recently had to call out) reading Peter Gorman’s blog? We didn’t think they were that smart!
Afghan farmers ditch opium —for cannabis
Progress, of a sort. From the New York Times, Nov. 4:
70 years? Probably more like 7,000…
Neo-colonialism at work. Just like the poor drink Nescafé in coffee-producing Central America…