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UN: Afghan produce of opium hits record high
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Afghanistan’s opium production surged this year to record levels, despite international efforts over the past decade to wean the country off the narcotics trade, according to a report released yesterday by the UN’s drug control agency.
The harvest this past May resulted in a staggering 5,500 tons of opium, 49 percent higher than last year and more than the combined output of the rest of the world. Even Afghan provinces with some past successes in combating poppy cultivation saw those trends reversed, according to the annual UN Office on Drugs and Crime report.
The withdrawal of foreign troops next year is likely to make matters even worse, said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the UNODC regional representative in Kabul. He warned that as international assistance falls off, the Afghan government will become increasingly reliant on illicit sources of income. Uncertainty is also driving up poppy production, as farmers worried about the country’s future turn to the tried and true.
The big rise in production began in 2010 when farmers rushed to plant to take advantage of soaring prices, a result of a crop disease the previous year, the US military surge in the south and the announcement of the US and NATO’s transition out of Afghanistan, Lemahieu said.
Lemahieu said those who benefit from the drug trade include farmers, insurgents and many within the government. Often, he said, they work together.
Khan Bacha, who cultivates a small plot of land in eastern Nangarhar province, a Taliban stronghold, said the insurgents charge farmers a “religious tax” of one kilogram of opium for every 10 kilograms produced, though the price is negotiable.
“They say we are going for jihad,” Bacha said. “It is the God money we give.”
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