Afghanistan — The World’s Top Producer of Heroin

Remember the War on Drugs? “Just Say No?”

The War on Terror has not only dwarfed the War on Drugs, it’s kind of sort of aiding and abedding the drug “bad guys”.

Afghanistan, that place we liberated from the Taliban, that place we hardly hear about any more because of Iraq and all of our successes there, is now the “world’s largest exporter of heroin, and the opium used to produce it, supplying 87 percent of the world market.” In 2004, Afghanistan produced 4,000 tons of opium, most of which was converted into 400 tons of morphine and heroin.

“It is not only the largest heroin producer in the world, 206,000 hectares is the largest amount of heroin or of any drug that I think has ever been produced by any one country in any given year,” says Robert Charles, who until last spring was assistant secretary of state for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, overseeing anti-drug operations in Afghanistan.

Charles says Afghanistan is producing more heroin than Columbia is producing cocaine. [“Afghanistan: Addicted to Heroin (60 Minutes)”]

According to a report on last night’s 60 Minutes, heroin production in Afghanistan has increased more than 2,000% since 2001. Wow. How long until drug lords become more powerful than the tentative new-born democracy do you suppose?

In fact, a number of suspected drug lords have been given key positions in the government. The most prefered method of transportation of the drug is the use of official vehicles like government transports and police cars. I wonder how much of that money is going to support terrorists.

Doesn’t it make you feel warm and cozy and safer knowing that we’ve done such a bang up job over there in the Middle East?

tags: Iraq, War on Terror, War on Drugs, Afghanistan, Taliban

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