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SHAHRAN, Afghanistan — For as long as anyone can remember, there was no need for paper money in this remote corner of the Hindu Kush. The common currency was what grew in everyone's backyard - opium. When children felt like buying candy, they ran into their father's fields and returned with a few grams of opium folded inside a leaf. Their mothers collected it in plastic bags, trading 18 grams for a meter of fabric or two liters of cooking oil. Even a visit to the barbershop could be settled in opium. But the economy of this village sputtered to...

Note: The following text is a quote: July 30, 2009 ANOTHER DEAD IMU DRUG RUNNER Both Reuters and AFP report the recent demise of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan activist Nemet Azizov in a firefight with Tajik forces in the Rasht valley. Mr. Azizov was allegedly involved in the production and/or trafficking of heroin produced from opium grown in nearby Afghanistan. Posted on 30 July 2009 @ 20:14 GMT

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 29 (UPI) -- The United States' top anti-drug agency will substantially boost its presence in Afghanistan to check opium trafficking, the Taliban's main revenue source. "One year ago, we had 13 personnel in Afghanistan working counternarcotics," Jay Fitzpatrick, the DEA's assistant regional director based in Kabul. "We're in the process of increasing the number of personnel to 81." The U.S. network reported the DEA also plans track the top 10 to 20 narcotics traffickers in Afghanistan with the help of Afghan authorities.

Commentary: WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- The outgoing NATO SACEUR, or supreme allied commander Europe, would gladly forgo more NATO troops to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan if allied countries dropped their caveats against their use in combat operations. Gen. John Craddock, the outgoing supremo, says these caveats "increase the risk to every service member deployed in Afghanistan and bring increased risk to mission success." They are also "a detriment to effective command and control, unity of effort and … command." NATO's International Security Assistance Force consists of 58,300 troops from 41 countries. But NATO's 28 member nations provide the...

Obama’s First Order: Don’t Hurt the Heroin byPaul L. Williams, Ph.D.thelastcrusade.org Obama's agenda; Narco-Nation Building Hey, guys, don’t pick the poppies. That’s the order from the Obama Administration to the 4,000 Marines presently engaged in Operation Khanjar or “Strike of the Sword,” an invasion of the Taliban infested Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. The Marines of Bravo’s Company 1st Platoon sleep beside groves of poppies Troops of the 2nd Platoon walk through the fields on strict orders not to swat the heavy opium bulbs. The Afghan farmers and laborers, who are engaged in scraping the resin from the bulbs, smile...

TRIESTE, Italy (Reuters) - Washington is to dramatically overhaul its Afghan anti-drug strategy, phasing out opium poppy eradication, the U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan told allies on Saturday. Richard Holbrooke, attending a G8 conference on stabilizing Afghanistan, also discussed efforts to support its August 20 election. Washington has nearly doubled its troops to combat a growing Taliban insurgency and provide security for the vote. "The Western policies against the opium crop, the poppy crop, have been a failure. They did not result in any damage to the Taliban, but they put farmers out of work," Holbrooke told Reuters after...

The United States is to change the way it deals with the massive poppy growing industry in Afghanistan. Instead of destroying the crops it will spend money encouraging Afghan farmers to grow different ones. US special envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke, at a G8 meeting in Italy, said current measures against poppy growers had been "a failure". The conference of foreign ministers in Trieste also called for credible elections in Afghanistan in August. Mr Holbrooke said that existing programmes of eradication had not reduced by one dollar the amount of money the Taliban earned from production. "Spraying the crops just...

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said. Lara Giddings, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, said the kangaroo-like marsupials were getting into poppy fields grown for medicine. She was reporting to a parliamentary hearing on security for poppy crops. Australia supplies about 50% of the world's legally-grown opium used to make morphine and other painkillers. We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles. Then they crash Lara Giddings,...

Wallabies are getting high on opium from poppy fields and flattening crops, an Australian official has said. The marsupials have been snacking on poppies growing in fields in Tasmania, the world's largest producer of legally-grown optium for medicines. Afterwards, they hop round in circles before crashing on top of the crops and trampling them to the ground. State attorney general Lara Giddings told a parliamentary hearing: "We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles. "Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that...

Stoned wallabies causing crop circles Tasmanian wallabies are getting stoned on the state's opium poppy crops and creating crop circles. Things are really hopping in Tasmania where wallabies are getting stoned on the state's opium poppy crops and creating crop circles. The wallabies are breaking into the poppy fields and making the circles while they're high. Rick Rockliff from Tasmanian Alkaloids says wildlife and livestock which eat the poppies are known to act weird, and he's told the Hobart Mercury there's been many stories about sheep eating the poppies and then walking around in circles. Tasmania is the world's largest...

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2009 – Afghan security forces, assisted by coalition forces, confiscated an opium cache and captured several armed enemy fighters in the southern province of Kandahar today and captured a Taliban commander in an earlier operation, military officials reported. In the Kandahar engagement, the security forces were attacked in the Chenartu Valley by enemy fighters with small-arms fire. The combined patrol returned fire and called in air support on the enemy positions. At the site, forces recovered 30 pounds of opium and captured several armed militants. The combined security forces are in the area conducting multi-day clearing operations,...

'Record' Afghanistan drugs bust International and Afghan troops have killed 60 militants and made a record drugs haul in an operation in southern Afghanistan, the US military has said.

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2009 – Afghan and coalition forces captured two drug traffickers, seized about a half ton of opium, and captured three other suspects in separate overnight operations in Afghanistan. In the Musa Qaleh district of Helmand province, Afghan forces, advised by coalition forces, detained the drug traffickers and opium early today. The combined forces found nearly 1,000 pounds of black-tar opium during a search of a suspected militant’s home. A suspected drug trafficker and an armed accomplice were found in the house and detained without resistance. The suspected trafficker is believed to have ties with people who use...

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2009 – Afghan forces, advised by coalition forces, confiscated 600 pounds of opium and killed seven armed militants last night during operations in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Prompted by local reports of Taliban activities in the area, the Afghan forces launched a search of compounds in a known insurgent safe haven and narcotics hub. The Afghan-led force found the opium, an AK-47 assault rifle with 1,000 rounds and remote-controlled bomb-making components during the search. The Afghan forces also found a trauma room fully stocked with medical supplies and ready to treat militant casualties....

LANCASTER [CALIFORNIA] - Poppies popped up Wednesday at Lancaster City Park. So did painted antelopes and ferocious-looking dinosaurs - all in preparation for this weekend's annual California Poppy Festival. "We've been planting poppy plants all week and will be planting about 500 plants today," said Jeff Campbell, recreation supervisor for Lancaster's Parks, Recreation and Arts Department. "And we'll probably be planting through Friday. "The tents for the festival started going up Monday and have been going up non-stop every day so far this week," Campbell said. "All told, we'll have about 175 tents. In the northwest area of the festival...

WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- Attempting to eradicate poppy fields in Afghanistan is counterproductive, the United States' top envoy to the country says. Even though U.S. President Barack Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan calls for continued efforts to destroy the flowers used in the production of opium, Richard Holbrooke, the administration's coordinator of Afghanistan policy, called the practice "wasteful and ineffective" at a Brussels forum this month, USA Today reported Tuesday. Moves to eradicate poppies have been "pushing farmers into the Taliban's hands" because it destroys their livelihoods, Holbrooke reportedly said.

Can pomegranates cut into the Talibans opium trade in Afghanistan? When I first heard this proposal, I thought it was a crazy idea. Now, I am not so sure. Pomegranates yield more then $2000 per acre than opium. The supporters of this proposal claim pomegranate farmers never return to growing opium. The downside is pomegranates are more difficult to transport in dangerous Afghanistan and the trees take 4~5 years to mature. The US Government is putting $12 million into publicizing the proposal. Video is here.

DUSHANBE, Tajik Drug Control Agency (DCA) chief Rustam Nazarov noted that according to the Afghan counternarcotics service, 7,700 tons of raw opium were produced in Afghanistan last year, 500 tons fewer than 2007. He noted that last year showed an increase in narcotics production in Afghan provinces not controlled by the central government. “The provinces uncontrolled by the central government now produce some 80 percent of Afghan narcotics,” said the Tajik drug control chief, “18 provinces in Afghanistan have been announced narcotics-free; three of these – Takhor, Balkh and Kunduz - border Tajikistan.” He added that production of narcotics in...

1st Video of N. Korean Poppy Fields Unveiled DECEMBER 09, 2008 07:45 The first video clip on poppies growing en masse in a district controlled by the North Korean military in Taehung, South Pyongan Province, was unveiled yesterday. The Citizens Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees, a Seoul-based civic group, released the 20-minute clip at a digital video exhibition for North Korean human rights at Gwanggyo Gallery in Seoul, saying it confirms the North Korean military-led “white bellflower project” as claimed by North Korean defectors. The clip, which the group said it received from a spy...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Under a wine-colored burqa that flows from the crown of her head down over her body, Khadija sat cross-legged, spinning the wheel of a sewing machine and methodically stitching a seam into a flowing stream of white cloth. The 42-year-old mother of five was working to burn off a consuming and deadly habit that again is blooming across Afghanistan. Until a few days ago, Khadija, who like many Afghans uses only one name, slipped opium in her tea twice a day to combat depression. It was," Khadija said, "more important than food." Just as the Taliban have...