Afghan opium trade has India worried

Times of India ^ | FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2004 | AMIT MUKHERJEE

[jb6]

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2004 04:55:55 AM ]

NEW DELHI: The failure of the US to put an end to the reign of druglords in Afgha-nistan may cost India dearly.

The sharp increase in opium cultivation in Afgha-nistan by a whopping 60% over the last one year is giving sleepless nights to Indian drug enforcement agencies.

The concern stems from the fact that most of the consignments of heroin seized in India in recent months originated in the war-ravaged Afghanistan and found their way into the country though the Indo-Pak border along Punjab.

"It's an alarming situation since we think the drug peddlers and mafia operating along the Afghanistan-Pakistan route may try to offload more contraband into India in the wake of a bumper harvest," said an official of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.

Opium production in Afghanistan was encouraged by the Taliban regime and its mentors in the ISI. The failure of the US to establish its grip over the entire country, with Taliban remnants continuing to call shorts over vast patches, has allowed the drug syndicates to carry on with their lucrative trade.

Recent reports on Afghanistan's drug industry show a mammoth 131,000 hectares (323,708 acres) was devoted to poppy farming.

[Arjun]

Its time the US let india take care of this problem by letting them into afghanistan for "peacekeeping". Pakis can go to hell if they dont like that.

[Kurt_D]

Well... again, the problem with drugs is not the supply. It is the DEMAND.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Under cutting the price of India's drugs?

[Kurt_D]

I don't think drugs can get any cheaper in India. For crying out loud, it is still a filthy poor, chaotic and decadent country, albeit with a rising middle class.

[jb6]

To some degree a large supply will generate some nascent demand. Unfortunately, with such addictive products, once any demand is generated it is life long and replicating.

[Yonkers Finest]

"Opium production in Afghanistan was encouraged by the Taliban regime and its mentors in the ISI."


I thought that under the Taliban Opium production had reached record lows?? I had read several reports that despite their backwards thinking and gross shortcoming they were actually able to curtail opium production substantially.

[Kurt_D]

I disagree... prohibition of substances does NOT work. Didn't we learn the lessons of the Prohibition Era?

[OKIEDOC]

Just my thoughts. These guys must have gone to school over at the Charles De Gaulle. If these worthless pricks don't like what were doing let them help fix the problems. India has about 100 billion useless people and all they do is scream and yell about Pakistan. I have yet to see India do anything in this world to help out anyone else. Especially if it involves getting into a fight.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Yeah right,India helped give birth to the world's 4th largest Muslim nation(Bangladesh) in 1971,while all America did was whine on the side of Pakistan.If they think America hasn't had success in control the drug cultivation in Afghanistan,they have a point-afterall Afghanistan is effectively under American control.The same goes for the US saying about Mexico or Iran saying about Pakistan,where opium harvesting is rife.

[Arjun]

Right after sept 11 India was the FIRST country to want to help the USA in spite of how badly the US has treated them. With the enormous prudence of this administration trying to heed Paki "sensibilities", Indian troops were NOT allowed to participate in Afghanistan. Now you are asking what have they done to help? The US shot itself in the foot by not letting the Indians help. Morons like you dont even know that.
India is also the largest troop contributer to the UN. Useless my foot!

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

"India is also the largest troop contributer to the UN. Useless my foot!"

If they supply the most troops to the UN, They are useless.
India has more thieves per capita than any other country.
They were very close to the USSR, I would think the USSR would have welcomed their help.
A person can not travel by car from Silchar to the state capital of Assam with out getting stopped by bandits.
I love the way they settle automobile accidents.
If one side has more people, they will gang up and beat up the driver of the car that has less people.

[investigateworld]

getthepopcornping

[secretagent]

Didn't we learn the lessons of the Prohibition Era?

Yes. Ending the WOA ended a valuable crop of problems to manage.

[Walkingfeather]

I dont see why with all the genetic agriculture we do we can no create a non opium poppy that would interbread with their crops and neutralize the effects of the opium. Seems like it would look like the same poppy but not have the narcotic effect and they would have to harvest them all before they knew which plant was viable and which wasnt.

[Arjun]

"If they supply the most troops to the UN, They are useless."
Yes . Unless they supply troops to America... they cant be of use right?


"India has more thieves per capita than any other country."
Wrong answer!
I have lived in india and the US and I can tell you confidently I felt more safe in India by FAR.

"A person can not travel by car from Silchar to the state capital of Assam with out getting stopped by bandits."
How many times have you tried that?

"If one side has more people, they will gang up and beat up the driver of the car that has less people."
No. Thats sounds too Texan.

[TKDietz]

"Well... again, the problem with drugs is not the supply. It is the DEMAND."

I agree with that, but when huge bumper crops are allowed to flourish as they are in Afghanistan it drops the price of heroin making it much more affordable for those who experimenting with or who wish to try it. Even if little of the heroin from Afghanistan makes it to the U.S., it's still going to affect price and availability here because it will displace South American heroin in other markets leaving a surplus to be dumped here. Heroin is expensive and not nearly as readily available as many of the other drugs. You probably couldn't find it if you tried where I live but you would have no problem whatsoever finding marijuana and finding meth or cocaine would only be a little harder. The more supply, the cheaper the prices and the greater the availability. There obviously isn't much demand where I live but if ready supplies became available some would try the drug and some who tried it would become addicted. Once addicted many would supply others to pay for their habits, opening things up for more people to become addicted.

Demand is the biggest part of the problem with drugs. The supply side does matter though, especially for a drug like heroin that is more or less unavailable in many parts of the nation. Big hits on supply also have the effect of raising prices or at least keeping them high, which makes it more difficult for people fooling around with these drugs to use them enough to become addicted.

I don't understand why we couldn't put a huge dent in the heroin supply from Afghanistan. These poppy fields are huge fields of colorful flowers. They could probably all be spotted by satellite. We could wipe out most of them and pay the farmers off to keep them happy while the government there is still on shaky ground. It would be a heck of a lot cheaper to subsidize other crops in Afghanistan than to deal with the problems large surpluses of cheap heroin create.

[TKDietz]

One problem with that is that there is a lot of opium produced for legitimate purposes. A modified opium free poppy vigorous enough to pollinate and overtake illegal poppy fields would also destroy the legitimate poppy fields.

[insider_uk]

That's exactly what I thought. It seems the U.N. did as well, in 2001.

U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan -- once the world's largest producer -- since banning poppy cultivation last summer.

Article here.

[TKDietz]

"I thought that under the Taliban Opium production had reached record lows?? I had read several reports that despite their backwards thinking and gross shortcoming they were actually able to curtail opium production substantially."

They had the support of the people (those that didn't want to be taken out and shot).