Opium In Afghanistan

One tiny pink flower is the root cause for approximately 90% of the world's illegal opium trade. The United States’ globalized war on illegal opium and heroin production targets several foreign countries including Burma, Colombia, and Afghanistan. In this paper, I will look more into the production of opium used for the drug trade in Afghanistan, and its direct relationship to the war on narcotics. This paper will also delve deeper into the production practices of opium production in the middle east specifically Afghanistan, the Afghani Government’s responses to opium production in their country, the ways, and techniques used to transport opium into the United States of America. Furthermore, I will explain the current burning of five tons of drugs destroyed by a controlled blaze in Herat, Afghanistan just last week. Finally, I will explore the future of the opium production and drug trade from the middle east into the rest of the world. Opium has a long-standing tradition in the country of Afghanistan not only for its culinary uses but also for its widespread medical
uses, such as in many of the best and widely used narcotic based pain killers. Its usage as a base for drugs such as heroin was never as prominent as it was in neighboring countries like China or even Iran. According to the author, Alfred W. McCoy “Afghan opium production was linked to events in Iran prior to the 1970s, where its usage became a major problem in the early twentieth century .” (McCoy, 1972) he even tried to blame the prominent outbreak of heroin reaching the world on the involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency working in that region at that time. The early to mid-1970’s in Afghanistan were a time where many of the western tourists were able to go and experiment with the different types of opiates and hashish prominent in the area. Production of opium is not necessarily always used to produce harsh illicit drugs. As I explained in an earlier paragraph opium is used in many other applications like cooking. Farmers through the ages have harvested their unripe poppy seed pods to produce opium.
Don’t immediately jump to the conclusion that this process is completely illegal or immoral as it is legal to grow and produce opium poppies in Australia, Turkey and even in India. Illicit opium production in Afghanistan is much like the methamphetamine trade found here in the United States, meaning that most production occurs in small out of the way areas to try and avoid detection. While it is not legal everywhere many other countries around the world produce opium, but not all of them produce it using the same techniques used in Afghanistan. The method used in Afghanistan is commonly referred to as the Southwest Asian method. This method entails the harvesting of the opium followed by a hot water and calcium bath and a few more steps which I will not dig too deep into. Per the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the central Asian country of Afghanistan is to blame for the production and exportation of 80 percent of the world's opium (Reuters, 2014). With numbers that high there can be no possible way, the government of that nation is not involved in the trade. Sadly, the United States has taken a big hit in this war on the drug trade in Afghanistan as the numbers in the cultivation of opium poppies have significantly increased since the war on terror has begun in 2001. The numbers were sitting at around 7,600 hectares in 2001 to an astounding 224,000 hectares in 2016 (Edstrom, 2016). In my own opinion, I cannot see how this is possible as coalition involvement with the restructuring of Afghanistan’s government seemed to be successful in many other aspects how something as big as opium production in the country increased by such a large margin. Not only is this affecting Afghanistan but the effects of the rise in opium trade have caused a steep increase in heroin-related deaths all over our country. While it seems the government of the country is against the illicit trade of opium it has a hard time getting rid of it since it is a source of income to many rural areas in their country. In lesser words, the Afghani government backs the production and processing of opium if it is having a positive impact on their economy. Data held by the United Nations shows an increase of 35 times the amount of opium exported from Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom began (Christian, 2016). Opiates mainly heroin enter the United States through the southern border with Mexico. While Mexico and some of South America also produce heroin, the biggest producer is the middle east mainly Afghanistan. This makes it easy for heroin to come from the middle east and be transported through the United States-Mexico border to reach its destined location here in the States. One of the main reasons the heroin from South West Asia is so widely used is due to its abundance and purity. The purity level of South Western Asian heroin purity peaked at around 36.8 percent compared to Mexican heroin which averages around 20.8 percent (DEA, 2004). With an average price of $40,000 to $190,000 based on purity alone, it is no wonder that Afghanistan does not want the trade of opium to decrease. In the news recently I saw a small article which caught my attention with a headline that read, “Afghanistan Burns 5 Tons of Drugs, Alcohol In Single Blaze” (NDTV, 2016).
The story based out of Herat, Afghanistan in which the Afghan Police confiscated and burned piles of drugs including raw opium, hashish and 100 bottles of alcohol. This was a major hit to the drug trade in the area because Herat is one of the three main routes used in the illicit drug trade in Afghanistan. In the article, the Herat police chief Ayoub Ansari was quoted by reporters as saying, “This demonstrates our commitment against drug trafficking. We are determined to prevent drug trafficking by all means possible” (NDTV, 2016). This shows me that there are efforts to at least make it seem as if some people actually want to diminish the amount of opium related drugs are leaving the country of
Afghanistan. It will be a hard road ahead to reduce the amount of opium produced in Afghanistan to diminish as it is such an easy crop to produce. If I was given a crop that yielded every time I planted it and it could provide me with a steady income I would have a hard time giving up on it. Due to the political infrastructure of that country and its overall lack of transportation capabilities, it will be hard to move other crops as fast as opium moves. If Afghanistan doesn’t have a structured police presence and a stricter method of dealing with those who continue to plant and harvest the opium poppy it will be nearly impossible to fight against the drug trade. Due to the changes that it has undergone from the early 1970’s through the end of Operation Enduring Freedom, it has been a hard-fought struggle to keep such an unstable economy going. It is hard to believe that one small pink flower has the capabilities to produce over 90% of the world's opium. Opium can provide a solid income to the farmers and harvesters of Afghanistan’s rural farm areas keeping many families alive and prosperous but at a huge cost to the lives of many. We have seen what opiates like heroin can do to others and their families. I have concluded in my own opinion the only way to completely eradicate the production of illegal opium is going to have to rely on costly aid and help for those nations such as Afghanistan who do not have the political and legal structure to combat this steady epidemic.