One Reporter’s Opinion — Afghan Opium Is a Scourge(George Putnam)

newsmax.com ^ | August 30, 2007 | George Putnam

[kellynla]

It is this reporter's opinion that the Bush administration has decided not to destroy the opium crop in Afghanistan even though the president previously linked the Afghan drug trade directly to terrorism.

Meanwhile, the Afghan opium poppy cultivation has exploded to a record high. The multibillion dollar trade, fueled by Taliban militants and corrupt officials in the Afghan Karzai government, is running rampant.

Opium grows on 477,000 acres of land in Afghanistan. That’s a 17 percent increase over last year’s acreage. Afghanistan now accounts for 93 percent of the global production of opium which provides the raw material for heroin.

U.S. forces, if allowed, could destroy the crop using aerial spraying techniques. But President Hamid Karzai rejects U.S. offers to spray the illegal crop claiming the herbicide would affect livestock, other crops, and water supplies.

Further opposition reportedly comes from the CIA which claims destruction of the Afghan opium would destabilize the Pakistani government … would threaten to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf’s government if the crops were destroyed.

The pitiful Afghanistan farmers attempting to scratch out a meager existence on their drought-stricken land, cry out, “We know it’s poison, but we have to feed our families.”

The farmers say a few acres of opium can bring five to eight times the price of a traditional wheat crop. According to intelligence sources, a single grant of $200 per year ($20 million in total) lent to the farmers could stop all opium production.

Compare that $20 million to the $50 or $60 billion already spent, already consumed by the war in Iraq. Consider too, the terrorists’ money originating with drugs flowing into the hands of Osama bin Laden.

If the Bush administration is truly interested in ending terrorism, it has to start in the poppy fields of Afghanistan. The United Nations estimates that Afghan opium, morphine, and heroin feeds the habits of 10 million addicts or two-thirds of the world’s opiate abusers. Afghan narcotics kill 10,000 people a year.

Europe is the most lucrative market, but this Afghan scourge is cutting a deadly path into the United States. Afghanistan is on track to produce 9,000 tons of opium this year, an increase of 34 percent over last year.

The farm value for opium is estimated at better than $1 billion dollars with a street value many times higher. And yet the farmers are telling us they are insulted by a government offer of $200 an acre to plant anything else.

Meanwhile, the innocent children of Afghanistan romp among the colorful poppy plants that will soon become the merchants of the world’s poison, death, and destruction.

To compound the problem, Karzai barely controls the capital city while the remainder of Afghanistan rests in the hands of unscrupulous war lords.

We must act to curtail this drug trade before many more lives are lost.

[Lurker]

U.S. forces, if allowed, could destroy the crop using aerial spraying techniques.

Or we could simply buy it for much less cost. Then American pharma companies could refine it into morphine thus reducing the world wide shortage of that drug.

But I suppose a free market solution to the problem is just a bit beyond everyones ken these days.

L

[papasmurf]

You’re correct. What’s more, if we did give them the money, they’d still grow it, and more!

I love George Putnam, I grew up on his newcasts, but he is just dead wrong. Speaking of dead...I thought he was.

Who does he takes us for Clintonistas???

[wideawake]

Afghanistan now accounts for 93 percent of the global production of opium

Please. The Golden Triangle accounts for less than 5% of world supply now?

The author of this piece may be on heroin if he thinks he can just throw out stats like this.

I like his use of his own opinion and unnamed sources as "reportage."

Looks like NewsMax is upholding its golden Paul Craig Roberts standard.

[subterfuge]

The author of this piece may be on heroin if he thinks he can just throw out stats like this.

The man is a JOURNALIST for crying out loud!!! How dare you question his integrity!

[gracesdad]

“Please. The Golden Triangle accounts for less than 5% of world supply now?

The author of this piece may be on heroin if he thinks he can just throw out stats like this.”

The DEA apparently agrees with him. In 2004 they estimated that Afghanistan produced 87 percent of the world’s opium. The percentage has risen since then.

[Lurker]

What’s more, if we did give them the money, they’d still grow it, and more!

Supply and demand is a beautiful thing. As I said, we simply offer to buy all they can produce. The US Government can act as a 'broker' between the producers of the raw product and the pharma companies.

Everybody is a winner. The Afghan farmers get paid for their product. In fact they'd get a premium. Pharma companies get a stable supply of raw material, and the Taleban and AQ lose a major revenue source. As a bonus the shortage of a critical pain relieving drug is eliminated.

What's not to like?

L

[papasmurf]

You must have read Herb Cohen’s, “Win Win”. LOL

[KDD]

What is ironic is the fact that poppy production in Afghanistan was almost completely eliminated under the Taliban.

[Lurker]

What is ironic is the fact that poppy production in Afghanistan was almost completely eliminated under the Taliban.

Thanks to a generous helping of American tax dollars courtesy of the Clinton Administration.

L

[wideawake]

The DEA apparently agrees with him. In 2004 they estimated that Afghanistan produced 87 percent of the world’s opium.

If that is the world's opium and not the percentage of opium trafficked to the US, that is truly an amazing figure.

If Afghani farmers really only received $700M for the 2005 crop, that would mean that the world heroin business has a production cost of less than $1B.

That's a shockingly low statistic.

[dangus]

You make a good point of the reporter’s failure to grasp economics on one level, but them you buy into another failure.

You and the reporter make the same error: There’s no fixing the price of a black market. If the government paid $200 to Afghan farmers to prevent them from cultivating opium, opium will become more scarce, the price will go up, the farmers will be able to make more money than the government is paying, and the government will have to increase what it pays, the price will go up, and the cycle continues.

If the drug companies buy the opium to make morphine, the demand for black-market opium will not decline, the price will go up, and the same cycle continues.

The only way to fight the proliferation of drugs is to make the cost of the drug so high to the end-user, that the end-user will not pay. Costs include not only direct financial costs, but also social and indirect financial costs (i.e., the risk of going to prison).

A small portion of addicts will demand the drug at any cost, and their attempts to meet the cost will be a risk to society. Eventually, however, the population of true addicts will decline as true addicts are forced into rehab, sent to prison, or die in the streets. The replacement rate for such addicts will collapse quickly. The more abruptly such addicts are forced to such outcomes, the less violence will occur.

The worst thing to do is to have a persistent fluctuation between low cost and high cost. During troughs in such fluctuations, new drug users get addicted; during uphill trends, they become more desperate.

[Lurker]

The only way to fight the proliferation of drugs is to make the cost of the drug so high to the end-user, that the end-user will not pay.

Assuming of course one finds that 'fighting' drug use is a worthwhile activity. I do not subscribe to that viewpoint.

Were it up to me the only people in the 'illicit' drug trade would be pharmacists and they'd be free to sell the crap to anyone over the age of majority in bushel baskets.

BTW I notice there's not much trade in illicit raw tobacco or malted barley in the US....

L

[wideawake]

What is ironic is the fact that poppy production in Afghanistan was almost completely eliminated under the Taliban.

A common, but false claim.

In 1999, under Taliban direction, Afghanistan produced the largest amount of opium it had produced since the Soviet invasion.

The street price of heroin dropped significantly due to oversupply.

In 2000, for a variety of reasons including diplomatic relations with world powers and a desire to regulate heroin pricing, Omar came up with a religious restriction on growing poppies which caused the heroin stockpiled by the Taliban to go up significantly in value.

In the eleven years that the Taliban had held political power in opium production regions, that was the very first time they did anything other than encourage its production and sale.

The Taliban was not interested in the availability of opium, but its price.

[Lurker]

The Taliban was not interested in the availability of opium, but its price.

One more good reason to legalize the crap and put these thugs out of the 'business'.

L

[wideawake]

I do not think legalization is a good idea, but I agree with your solution of purchasing the entire crop at a fixed price.

Of course, the usual buyers would probably approach the farmers and say: "Fine. Then we will pay you 110% of what the Americans offer and you will sell to us - or we will kill you and your children before the Americans can hear your cries for help."

[kellynla]

"The author of this piece may be on heroin if he thinks he can just throw out stats like this?"

"The author?" You obviously don't know who George Putnam is. And, FYI, he didn't just "throw out stats like this"...those are the latest numbers published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. But I'm sure you are more knowledgeable about what's going on in Afghanistan and the rest of the world when it comes to heroin & poppy.

I suggest you do a little research before you "break wind" on one of the most prolific conservative voices in American journalism & talk radio. George Putnam is a LEGEND!



"Afghanistan produced 93 percent of the world’s opium in 2007, up from 92 percent last year, the annual UNODC report said."
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

[gracesdad]

From the story:

“The farm value for opium is estimated at better than $1 billion dollars with a street value many times higher.”

Opium production is far, far lower than it used to be in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Back then, production was around 41,000 tons, most of which was consumed in China. Now, it’s maybe 6,000-7,000 tons. And far, far less thatn that when the Taliban cracked down on it (not that I’m a fan of the Taliban).

[Lurker]

or we will kill you and your children before the Americans can hear your cries for help."

Which makes legalizing the crap the common sense solution.

L

[wideawake]

This is that George Putnam? Then I'll give him a break since he's over 90.

In the same article he claims that Afghanistan represents 93% of opium production but 66% of heroin supply.

How does that work exactly?