U.N. Official: Opium Yield Down Only 2 Percent Despite Crackdown on Farmers

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBV8DDSYCE.html

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Opium yield in Afghanistan dropped by just 2 percent this year despite a major clampdown on poppy farmers that sharply reduced the amount of land used to grow the narcotic, the United Nations anti-drug chief said Monday.

The amount of land being cultivated was reduced by 21 percent by the crackdown but the fields in production produced a bumper crop of 4,100 tons thanks to heavy rains after years of drought, said Antonio Maria Costa, the director for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Last year's yield was 4,200 tons.

Afghanistan is still estimated to produce 87 percent of the world's supply of both opium and its derivative, heroin, Costa said.

He predicted it would take 20 years to eradicate cultivation of drugs - a mainstay of many of Afghanistan's impoverished farmers, despite government warnings against growing poppies and the destruction of some crops by authorities.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBJCUIRYCE.html

Opium Cultivation Drops Sharply in Afghanistan, UN Says

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Opium yield in Afghanistan dropped by just 2 percent this year despite a major clampdown on poppy farmers that sharply reduced the amount of land used to grow the narcotic, the United Nations anti-drug chief said Monday.

The amount of land being cultivated was reduced by 21 percent by the crackdown but the fields in production produced a bumper crop of 4,100 tons thanks to heavy rains after years of drought, said Antonio Maria Costa, the director for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Last year's yield was 4,200 tons.

Afghanistan is still estimated to produce 87 percent of the world's supply of both opium and its derivative, heroin, Costa said.

He predicted it would take 20 years to eradicate cultivation of drugs - a mainstay of many of Afghanistan's impoverished farmers, despite government warnings against growing poppies and the destruction of some crops by authorities.

[Village Idiot]

1. I call "Bullshit." 20 years??? YA - RIGHT.

It seems to me that the Taliban made a pretty good dent (99%)in the crop in ONE YEAR...

Farrell G; Thorne J.: "Where have all the flowers gone?: Evaluation of the Taliban crackdown against opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan."
International Journal of Drug Policy 16(2): 81-91, 2005. (31 refs.)

"This study presents what we believe to be the first formal evaluation of the Taliban crackdown against opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was the main source of the world's illicit heroin supply for most of the 1990s. From late 2000 and the year that followed, the Taliban enforced a ban on poppy farming via threats, forced eradication, and public punishment of transgressors. The result was a 99% reduction in the area of opium poppy farming in Taliban-controlled areas. The evaluation uses multiple comparison areas: the non-Taliban area of Afghanistan, neighbouring countries, the non-contiguous comparison area of Myanmar (Burma), and, the rest of the world. Alternative possible causes of the reduction such as drought, migration or changes in global opium markets are reviewed and excluded. It is concluded that the reduction in Afghan poppy cultivation was due to the enforcement action by the Taliban. Globally, the net result of the intervention produced an estimated 35% reduction in poppy cultivation and a 65% reduction in the potential illicit heroin supply from harvests in 2001. Though Afghan poppy growing returned to previous levels after the fall of the Taliban government, this may have been the most effective drug control action of modern times."

http://www.projectcork.org/bibliographies/data/Bibliography_Afghanistan.html

The US is actually PAYING AFGHAN WARLORDS for information on terrorists, and the WARLORDS, with tacit approval of US Forces, funnel pretty much 100% of the money back into lucrative opium production ...what the fuck do you expect them to grow? Tomatoes? Idiots...Morons...

[Village Idiot]

2. The Taliban were going to get $25M USD / Year from UNDCP

for eradicating opuim until, of course, the USA removed their funding for the project...

[HadItUpToHere]

3. a big part of the reason for the taliban crackdown was to drive up prices-

they were sitting on tons of the stuff, and there was a glut in the market...eventually they would have allowed it again- and even said (before the u.s.invasion) that if the u.s. were to invade- it would no longer be forbidden under Islamic law to grow it.

[pberq]

4. Article from 2003 re: increase in opium production after U.S. invasion

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/121103_afghan_poppy.html

AFGHAN OPIUM PRODUCTION DOUBLES

December 11, 2003 100 PDT (FTW) -- Ever wonder why the markets are doing so well? As FTW has documented for years, with almost $600 billion in drug money being laundered through Wall Street and US banks, the markets should be improving. According to CNN, opium production in Afghanistan is 36 times higher than at the end of Taliban rule. Not every US policy overseas is a failure. Hamid Karzai controls a few square blocks of Kabul. But CIA-controlled warlords control the real estate that really matters.

U.S. : Afghan poppy production doubles

Friday, November 28, 2003 Posted: 1:34 PM EST (1834 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan doubled between 2002 and 2003 to a level 36 times higher than in the last year of rule by the Taliban, according to White House figures released Friday.

The area planted with poppies, used to make heroin and morphine, was 152,000 acres in 2003, compared with 76,900 acres in 2002 and 4,210 acres in 2001, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said in a statement.

The Taliban was cracking down on poppy production in the year before the U.S. military drove the movement out of office in late 2001 in response to its friendship and cooperation with the al Qaeda organization of Osama bin Laden.

[WildClarySage]

5. 2%??? Not to worry, there's plenty of good old homemade All-American

meth to go around.

[WildClarySage]

6. 2%??? Not to worry, there's plenty of good old homemade All-American

meth to go around.