BBC World News:

Russia reports Afghan heroin rise

Afghanistan is the world's main heroin producer
The amount of Afghan heroin entering Russia nearly doubled in the first nine months of 2004, according to government figures released in Moscow.

Russian police intercepted 2.9 metric tons between January and October compared to 1.4 tons seized during the same period last year.

Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said Russia, a country of about 142m people, now had some 4m drug addicts.

In the same period, 62 police officers were arrested on trafficking charges.

Afghan opium production accounts for most of the world's heroin supplies.

Alexander Fyodorov, acting chief of Russia's federal drug agency, said the Afghanistan was expected to produce about 420 tons of heroin this year.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently said the country's rampant drugs trade was a national disgrace.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a conference of anti-drug officials on Wednesday that drugs threatened to "destroy the political and military success achieved in [Afghanistan] during the last four years".

He suggested creating an "anti-drug belt" around the country and urged the United Nations to increase its anti-drug efforts within Afghanistan.

Seriously though, I'm sure this problem will take some time...I'm not really all that familiar with how things are going over there, but I'm pretty confident in saying their political intitutions are tenuous at best...and probably seen as illigitimate by many...so what can be expected about their law enforcement/security situation?

I love this. We gave tons of money to none other than the Taliban to stop opium production, which they did. We kick them out, take over, and now it's back to record levels. WTF?

So what government can we overthrow to get LSD prices back down to early 90's levels?

--PunkDavid

oh for the days of the $25 tenstrip...

actually, i dont think i ever need that again... had my fun with it for a few years, but that was enough... not to derail, but one of my buddies is ALWAYS on the lookout for trips, but he claims that the gov't has done a hell of a job at eliminating its production... granted we lived in the midwest, but he moved to arizona and claims it's still dry as the desert around him?... do you think the gov't can actually accomplish something like this?... acid for example... we argue about it here-and-there and i just tell him that he's looking in all the wrong places, not that i know the right ones... any thoughts?

We used to get $70 SHEETS from the maker.

Here's what happened to the acid. http://www.cubensis.com/lsd.html

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/04/01/crime.lsd.reut/

--PunkDavid

70?... wow... cheapest we could EVER get was $125 (and talk about profit)... anyway... thanks for the info... id always wondered about the Dead connection, and it looks like they actually did have quite an affect on it all... 2 guys with 95% of the supply go down and you can see why it came to an end

It really was funny how you could never find acid, opium, etc. until Phish or the Dead tours hit your side of the country. That two month span was like Christmas for the fiends.

In regards to the article, I have a very reliable source who says that Afghanistan's opium doesn't really end up in America, that most of the opium/morphine production comes from Canada. It is almost impossible to send a shipment of ANYTHING from Afghanistan to the US, nevermind craploads of illegal substances. Even if they ship it via Europe, it is still very difficult to get through customs. It's my firm opinion that a lot of these articles are just scare tactics by the FDA and other "buzz-kill organizations."

That doesn't surprise me at all.

I'm all for opium production in Afghanistan. It's a more direct way of the people getting aid from rich countries than going through corrupt government redistribution systems.

--PunkDavid

So PD your for us allowing Afghanies to grow copius amounts of heroin, because it's giving them jobs and a source of income?

Poppy production has only INCREASED since the United States invaded Afghanistan. Coincidence? Nah.

It's better than bomb production, or having your hands cut off by Taliban for growing opium.

It's not like they're creating the demand.

--PunkDavid

cant remember if i saw it or read it... but they were saying/showing how when we bombed afghanistan, the US made sure not to destroy the poppy fields... anyone know anything about this?... not a big surprise, but i wanted to read/see that again

Wow, maybe we could end the war on drugs and this wouldn't be such a fucking problem anymore.

I wonder how Colombians might feel--they're getting the brunt of the DEA's attack while Afghanistan just goes on by.

Alright, now the Taliban destroys their entire opium crop in January 2001. It's been verified by United Nations, Drug Enforcement Administration, ABC, and BBC. Afghanstan had been the largest producer of opium, supplying the world with 70% of the world's heroin. Through the year 2000, in January they destroy it all. Since United States invasion in October of 2001, all of those crops have been replanted and are currently flourishing as seen in this article.

Why is heroin production so important for the United States? Why would we allow 70% of the world's heroin come from a region that we now have total control? Does this not seem very hippocritical considering our "War on Drugs"?

Who's moving all this heroin if it's our troops that control that country? Who's moving that, and who's buying all these drugs that are now comming to market? If these farmers are making money, off of who?

Methinks you're looking a little too hard for conspiracies in this one. And lest we not forget, the US only really controls Kabul, considering the sorely needed troops for occupying Afghanistan are indefinitely tied up in Iraq. The problem I see with destroying all the Opium crop is that then the farmers would have absolutely no income. Why grow Opium? because its the only cash crop they have, and without it they'd probably starve. Very sad state of affairs and we've forgotten about them so quickly...

Personally, I'm awaiting my 85th birthday before I start using heroin because ya figure, what the hell would I have to loose at that point,....right?

Name one conspiracy in what I said. I think your not paying attention to the obvious. We attempt to have a war on drugs yet, will not stop 70% of the heroin in the world?

exactly. No way should this be a problem for Afghanistan. If the U.S. would legallize it this crop would be a huge boon for Afghanistan. There's no reason growing opium should be suppressed.

http://www.slate.com/id/2110987