America’s war on drugs
is failing in Afghanistan, with opium production at record levels,
despite spending $7.5 billion to tackle the problem. Over 200 thousand
hectares is used to grow opium, an increase of 36 percent, according to a
US report.
The report, which was commissioned by SIGAR,
the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction makes grim
reading, with opium poppy cultivation increasing by over a third, while
the country now has about 1.3 million heroin users. This is a ten-fold
increase compared to 2005, when around 130,000 people were using the
drug.
Afghanistan is responsible for about
three-quarters of the world’s heroin production, with much of it being
cultivated in the Helmand and Kandahar provinces in the south of the
country. However, the US has concentrated most of its efforts in the
east of Afghanistan, which has relatively little poppy production, as it
is safer than working in the south.
Attempts to limit production and seize heroin
have not been helped due to a downscaling of operations by the ISAF
(International Security Assistance Force). In 2013, coalition forces
managed to seize 41,000 kilograms of opium out of the 5.5 million
kilograms produced in Afghanistan.
“Drug labs, storage sites, and major
trafficking networks are concentrated in rural areas that are
increasingly off-limits to Afghan forces due the ISAF drawdown and
declining security in these areas,” the report found.
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