Pubdate: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 Source: Palm Beach Post, The (FL) Copyright: 2007 The Palm Beach Post Contact: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/333 Note: Does not publish letters from writers outside area Referenced: 2007 World Drug Report http://www.unodc.org/unodc/world_drug_report.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/World+Drug+Report Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Afghanistan Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) THE OTHER AFGHAN WAR The latest annual report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime says the world's drug problem is "under control." That's not counting the availability of Afghan opium, which has spiked out of control. In fact, the presence of 35,000 mostly American troops, along with all the Bush administration's and President Hamid Karzai's promises, have seemed only to promote Afghanistan's production of the illegal drug that is used to make heroin. The religious-zealot Taliban once had all but eradicated the production. Then the White House veered from defeating the Taliban and catching Osama bin Laden to Iraqi-democracy dreaming. Since then, the trend has been like last year, when global opium production increased 43 percent to a new record high. Afghanistan produced 92 percent of that, according to the 2007 World Drug Report (at unodc.org). Its area under opium poppy cultivation has grown by 59 percent since 2005. Half the world's illegal opium is cultivated in a single southern province, Helmand. In contrast, cannabis, the largest illicit drug market with 160"million users worldwide, is produced in 172 countries and territories. Yet, "The global drug problem is being contained," says the latest analysis from the Vienna-based U.N. office. "The production and consumption of cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines and Ecstasy have stabilized at the global level." But in Afghanistan, impoverished opium farmers see themselves at the mercy not only of the unholy alliance between the opportunistic Taliban and the drug lords but of policies that to Afghans seem aimed only at providing some good 'ol boys some fun. "This is redneck heaven," one Tennessean working as a private eradication contractor told The New Yorker. "You get to run around the desert on ATVs and pickups, shoot guns, and get paid for it. Man, it's the perfect job." Economic development, however, is almost as scarce as Osama bin Laden, who may be off somewhere running his own poppy farm. The drug boom finances rampant lawlessness and the Taliban's revival. Increasingly alienated Afghans see the U.S. and its allies fraternizing with thugs, when not accidentally bombing and killing civilians. The U.N. report correctly observes that drug cultivation "thrives on instability, corruption and poor governance" - exactly what U.S. intervention should have prevented. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake