Quote:
Originally Posted by jatx
Drug production would grow unchecked, with the resulting funds being used to further destabilize Pakistan. Ewes would be back to wearing panties in public.
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Drug production goes unchecked for the most part as it is. Some of the leading warlords that have historically grown, cultivated, processed and transported the drugs, are now in the IRoA government. Look at Karzai's brother a little harder and you'll find your answers.
How well does the government utilize forces to combat it's growning drug problem? (not well at all, showing up with a few tractors and slashing down a few hundred acres countrywide does not constitute effort)
What percentage of the poppy grown goes to fueling the insurgency? (see below)
Most recent UNAMA report on Opium Trade:
New Measures Against the Afghan Opium Tsunami
October 31, 2007 - Senior international counter-narcotics officials are meeting in Kabul today and tomorrow to improve efforts to stop the flow of deadly drugs out of Afghanistan. The meeting, organized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), is held in the framework of the Paris Pact – a initiative launched in 2003 to promote coordinated measures to counter narco-trafficking in, and from Afghanistan.
Afghanistan had a record harvest of 8,200 tons of opium in 2007, a 34% increase in production over 2006. The total opium export is valued at $4 billion in Afghanistan, an increase of 29% over 2006. The opium economy is now equivalent to more than half (53%) of the country's licit GDP.
This deadly export gains value at every border crossing, because of the risks entailed by smuggling. By the time the heroin hits the streets of Moscow, London or Paris, the Afghan opium export could worth up to 100 times more. For Antonio Maria Costa, executive head of UNODC, "while opium brings some revenue to Afghanistan, over 90% of profits are made by international criminal gangs and terrorists networks".
At the Kabul meeting the world will be invited to do much more against this threat. To begin with, only a fraction of Afghanistan's opiates is being seized worldwide (24% against 48% of the Colombian cocaine seized). In Central Asia the interdiction rate is less than 4%, mostly in Tajikistan. Since 2005, new heroin routes have emerged via Pakistan and via Central Asia to China and India. "If border control is not improved Afghanistan's neighbors will be hit by a tsunami of the most deadly drug", warned Mr. Costa.
"Afghan drugs pose a major threat to public health everywhere, because of higher deaths to overdoses, and to security to Afghan neighbors, because of drug money flowing into the funding of terrorism", Mr. Costa stated recently, addressing the heads of state of the CIS countries (Commonwealth of Independent States). “CIS countries are under attack and not ready as yet to protect themselves”. To help, UNODC has promoted the establishment of a Central Asia Regional Information Centre and has brokered a Trilateral Initiative to improve counter-narcotics cooperation among Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
At the Kabul meeting, experts from North America, Central Asia, the European Union, CIS countries, Iran, Pakistan, Interpol, NATO and the WCO will critically review the regional and international efforts to contain the Afghan opiates threat. New initiatives will be considered, focused on border security and trans-border cooperation, on the smuggling of precursor chemicals into Afghanistan, and on the threat posed by opium trafficking into China.
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