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Spike in Opium Poppy Cultivation Impedes Afghan Drug War

Opium cultivation doubles as government builds counter-narcotics infrastructure

A new U.N. survey says opium cultivation in Afghanistan hit a record high in 2006, rising nearly 60 percent over the past year and producing 6,100 tons of opium.

Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said the increase in opium cultivation is "very alarming."

"The news is very bad. On the opium front today in some of the provinces of Afghanistan, we face a state of emergency," he said at a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, on the report's release date. In the southern provinces, "the situation is out of control," Costa continued.

"This year's harvest will be around 6,100 metric tons of opium - a staggering 92 percent of total world supply. It exceeds global consumption by 30 percent," the U.N. official said, adding that the Taliban insurgency in the south was contributing to the rise in poppy cultivation.

The latest U.N. Annual Opium Survey for Afghanistan, released September 2, used satellite imagery and ground assessments. These showed the area under poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2006 was 164,990 hectares, 104,000 more than 2005. Cultivation fell in eight provinces, but only six of Afghanistan's 34 provinces are free of opium poppy crops.

Afghanistan is the largest cultivator of the opium poppy, responsible for most of the illicit opium, heroin and opium derivatives hitting world markets. This makes the Afghan poppy harvest a global problem, and is why international backers including the United States have funded programs since 2001 to help the Afghan government eradicate opium poppy cultivation.

The increase in Afghanistan's illicit drug production correlates with a rise in drug abuse among its neighbors. According to the World Drug Report 2006, Afghanistan's neighbors in South and Central Asia are among the countries with the highest drug use.

"More than half the world's opiates-abusing population live in Asia and the highest levels of opiates abuse are along the main drug-trafficking routes originating in Afghanistan," the report says.

OPIUM POPPY ERADICATION STRATEGY

Thomas Schweich, U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), told reporters in Washington August 31 that the current level of opium cultivation is "bad news," but he emphasized the Afghan government's multifaceted anti-narcotics strategy - supported by the United States and partner countries - will take time to implement.

"It's not a catastrophic failure, but it's no success, either," Schweich said of the U.N. report results. "What we ask the public and international community to understand is sustained poppy reduction requires perseverance, sticking with the plan, refining the plan and giving it a little bit of time to work."

The two-year-old strategy involves several phases, beginning with a public information campaign to educate Afghan citizens about the downside of poppy cultivation. Crop eradication, interdiction of trafficking and processing activities, judicial reform, strict law enforcement and provision of alternative livelihoods for poppy growers all are essential components of the effort to reduce poppy cultivation, Schweich said.

The U.S. government has spent more than $300 million in the past two years on developing alternative livelihoods in Afghanistan. But given that a poppy crop earns 10 times the money as that earned by traditional wheat crops and six or seven times what fruit orchards can bring, incentives must come with strong disincentives.

The limited capacity of Afghan judicial and law enforcement institutions contributes to slow progress.

"A special tribunal in Kabul has national jurisdiction over drug cases that involve a certain minimum threshold of opium," Schweich said. "It's got cases in there and they are prosecuting people."

But there are only about 100 cases being prosecuted currently, and "[w]e would want to see thousands," he continued.

"You can have the best policy in the world, you can identify narcotraffic, you can take them down, but if they go in one door in the courthouse and out the other one because of corruption, lack of facilities or lack of capacity, it doesn't make any difference. There has to be a credible threat of prosecution," Schweich said.

Costa agreed, saying, "Drug-free areas should be rewarded with more substantial and more visible development aid. Governors and police officials presiding over opium growing provinces should be removed and charged."

But official corruption, insurgency and a weak government often mean one step forward and two steps back. The INL sees containment of the drug trade in Afghanistan as a long-term project requiring sustained effort and assistance from the international community "over many years."

TIES BETWEEN INSURGENCY, DRUG TRAFFICKING

Aside from the problem of corruption, eradication and enforcement efforts in Afghanistan must face challenges from the insurgency, according to Schweich.

Prior to its ouster in 2001, the Taliban government cracked down on poppy cultivation, which resulted in reduced production for a year or so. Now Western and Afghan sources say the Taliban-led insurgency might be involved in the drug trade.

"There is increasing evidence that the insurgency is using narcomoney to fund their activities," Schweich said. That gives anti-drug efforts more urgency, he continued.

Central Afghanistan is less problematic than the south. Helmand province, increasingly plagued by insurgency, saw a 162 percent increase in cultivation and represents 42 percent of Afghan production, according to U.N. figures. However, Schweich said, even in Helmand a governor-led eradication program was "quite successful over the past 10 months."

"[T]he governor-led eradication got [13,000] or 14,000 hectares, close to 10 percent of the crop, over the past several months," he said. Schweich added that the operation built the confidence of the Afghan forces that conducted it.

Not only is the eradication a deterrent, "the government shows it's capable of going into dangerous areas and asserting itself," Schweich said.

Source: U.S. Department of State