Opium cultivation rising in Afghanistan

So this is why we took the place, to feed our drug habit. It's supposed to be a bumper crop this year! Wee!

KABUL, Afghanistan - Cultivation of opium poppies has increased in large areas of Afghanistan, raising fears there could be another bumper crop this year, a government and U.N. survey said.
Widespread eradication of poppies is needed in the coming months leading up to harvest time in the world's top producer of opium and its derivative, heroin, officials warned Monday.

Farmers are planting more opium poppies than last year in 13 provinces, while cultivation levels are stable in 16 provinces and have dropped in only three, the Ministry of Counternarcotics and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in a statement.

"We are concerned about these trends," UNODC representative Doris Buddenberg said.
But Counternarcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi said he was optimistic that widespread eradication and programs encouraging poppy farmers to switch to legal crops would cause illegal cultivation to drop by year's end.

The survey was carried out in December and January, the start of the poppy growing season, it said. Another survey will be done at the end of the season in autumn.
Afghanistan is the source of nearly 90 percent of the world's opium and heroin even though the international community has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into fighting the trade since the hard-line Taliban regime was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...d/14039571.htm

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Classic American liberal

We invaded Afganistan to ensure an everlasting supply of heroin for all the homeless dopeheads because, let's be honest, we all know they are the ones really running the show.

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WARNING: In the unlikely event of an accidental agreement with any or all points made in the above post, contact a clinical psychologist immediately.

The views expressed in the above post are not necessarily those of Joker and/or any of his affiliates.

"You have found the secret message. Do you have too much time on your hands? ...Let it go."

It is sad that opium farming is the only viable industry in Afganistan. They should subsidise the farmers to plant some vegetables.

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"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. " — John Stuart Mill

To annoy ya'll.

But the market makes growing drugs profitable in comparison to other things. And when your poor and starving selling a product is all that matters.
Hell if the Afghan government had any sense they'd encourage opium production (I think they already are).

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"Better to die on you feet than live on your knees" - Emilio Zapata

If I were there I would be growing opium, too.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

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"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

I would only if I had a family to support. If only my own survival were at stake, I wouldn't grow opium even if it meant my death not to do so.

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"I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased- short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed." (Max Beerbohm)

I would grow it simply because it pays more than growing chick peas! What other people do to themselves is not my concern.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

You guys can grow Opium in the U.S. as well. Just order some seeds and plant some in your backyard flower garden. I think the Opium poppies are flowers anyways.

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"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. " — John Stuart Mill

Opium production has risen sharply because under the Taliban it was almost eradicated. This was supposedly out of the goodness of their hearts, but in reality they captured stores of harvested poppy base and opium and eliminating production denied their enemies money while driving up the value of what they controlled.

Much of the opium harvest was previously controlled by the warlords who formed the Northern Alliance against the Taliban and who the U.S. used as ground troops to drive the Taliban out of power. The quid pro quo for assisting the United States was that they could reestablish their bases of power, which included opium production.

There is currently being launched a local opium eradication operation in Southwest Afghanistan. The first reason for this is to 'show' the United States is not ignoring the problem and the other reason is that much of the harvest there is controlled by the Taliban. Any attempt to seriously tackle the burgeoning opium/heroin trade would turn the warlords against Karzai's government and against the United States.

My cynical prediction is that the price of heroin will continue to drop, until the increased supply creates enough new addicts to balance supply and demand. This should appeal to the capitalists in the forum as a market solution to the problem!