Because of our Invasion: An Opium Plague

The US has long stressed to President Karzai the importance of combating corruption in Afghanistan, but of course corruption is inevitable in a narcostate. Although the Taliban had successfully banned opium production in 2000, our invasion, aided by Northern Alliance drug lords, brought it back with a vengeance. Afghanistan now supplies most of the world's opium. (See previous blog "Out of Afghanistan" September 10, 2009.)

Along with opium production comes opium and heroin addiction, not only in Afghanistan, but also in its neighbors and in the West. Due to its proximity to Afghanistan, heroin addiction is rampant in Russia, for instance. The BBC World News April 1, 2010 reported that 30,000 heroin addicts die in Russia each year. The New York Times (10/23/09) noted that the annual toll in NATO countries is estimated to be greater than 10,000. An AP report by Rukmini Callimachi (8/9/09) describes the consequences of opium in rural Afghanistan. In the town of Sarab, population 1850, half the town are now opium addicts, up from just one family years ago. A once well-to-do farmer becomes penniless, selling everything he has to buy opium, even sacrificing the children's food money and blowing opium smoke in the children's mouths instead.

In our recent Afghanistan "surge," we have "turned a blind eye" to opium cultivation. (The New York Times 3/21/10). In fact, a recent report by the State Department inspector general is highly critical of our anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan (The New York Times 12/24/09).

It is often observed that there is no military solution in Afghanistan, and President Karzai recently complained that left alone he could strike a peace deal with the Taliban, but the United States refuses to allow him. (The New York Times 3/30/10) Obviously the best thing for Afghanistan and the world is peace leading to a re-banning of the opium crop.