Victor Ivanov , head of Russia's federal drug control agency , said at least 30,000 people died in Russia every year from heroin, 90% of it from Afghanistan. Russia is believed to have around five million drug addicts, half of whom are addicted to heroin.
He accused Nato of not doing enough to curb the production of heroin in Afghanistan.He blamed the US administration for ending a military drive to destroy opium poppy crops in Afghan fields. According to statistics from UNODC, in 2001, Afghanistan produced 185 tons of drugs, in 2002 - 3,400 tons, in 2003 - 3,600 tons, in 2004 - 4,200, in 2005 - 4,100, in 2007 - 8,200, in 2008 - 7,700 tons.
"We are poor farmers,” said Sayed Wakhan “We grow opium to survive.”
An evaluation by the UNODC of its Alternative Development project between 1997 and 2000 in three districts of Kandahar found that though the project succeeded in raising yields of legal crops (like wheat, cumin, beans, onions and fruit) by about 90 per cent, these improvements would not have been sufficient to make legal crops more profitable than opium poppy. The poppy crop can also be harvested earlier than wheat, allowing farmers to double crop, growing maize after harvesting the poppies. Poppies being weather-resistant are also a more reliable crop than wheat. Opium is also easy to store, transport and sell, providing poor farmers a simple means to smooth income. The income per hectare from opium poppy in 2000 was an average of $16,000. As the UNDOC report on The Opium Economy concluded, “at these gross income levels, no other crop which could be planted on a large scale would be competitive vis-a-vis opium poppy in Afghanistan” For the warlords, who still continue to rule much of Afghanistan, the narco-economy continues to provide a rich source of takings. Opium purchased directly from the farmers could be used by the western development agencies to provide morphine for easing the pain associated with various terminal illnesses, including AIDS, in many parts of the Third World, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. WHO reports that 4.8 million people a year with moderate to severe cancer pain receive no appropriate treatment. Nor do another 1.4 million with late-stage AIDS. For other causes of lingering pain there are no estimates, but WHO believes millions go untreated. The vast majority are in developing countries.
"..this year we see also that there is a sharp decrease in the price of crops like wheat so it will lead the farmers to go more with illicit crops," said Angela Me, who is with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
"...Drugs and bribes have become Afghanistan's largest source of income," Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) wrote in the report.
“The people who really control Marjah will be the people who control the drugs,” an analyst in Kabul said. “So even if the Taleban fighters go, the criminal networks will still be there and maybe they are the same.”
The Dutch military contingent from the Afghan province of Uruzgan must be completely withdrawn by late 2010 based on its Parliament's decision. Gen. David Richards, head of the British army said British troops will likely remain in Afghanistan for five more years, and nation-building work will continue for 30 or 40 more years. A dire prospect for many.
Our own war ,the class war, needs no re-defining. The solution to the on-going insanity remains the same. There is one world and we exist as one people in need of each other and with the same basic needs. There is far more that unites us than can ever divide us along cultural, nationalistic or religious lines. Together we can create a civilisation worth living in, but before that happens we need to be united in one common cause – to create a world in which each person has free access to the benefits of civilisation, a world without borders or frontiers, social classes or leaders and a world in which production is at last freed from the artificial constraints of profit and used for the good of humanity – socialism. This cannot be fought with guns and missiles, but using something more powerful – our minds, our imagination, our solidarity and preparedness to unite as the exploited class and to wrest control of the planet from the madmen before it is to late.
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