Pubdate: Fri, 23 Oct 2009
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A14
Copyright: 2009 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Neil MacFarquhar
Referenced: The report 'Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: The 
Transnational Threat of Afghan Opium' http://drugsense.org/url/MNSxs096
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Afghanistan
Bookmark: http://drugnews.org/topic/poppy
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Taliban
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

REPORT SHOWS AFGHAN DRUGS REACH DEEP IN THE WEST

UNITED NATIONS -- The Afghan opium harvest is feeding a $65 billion 
global trade in heroin each year, which now kills many more people in 
NATO countries in a year than the number of NATO soldiers who have 
died on the battlefield in Afghanistan since 2001, Antonio Maria 
Costa, the senior United Nations official on drugs and crime, said Thursday.

"If we do not address this, it will be hard to solve all the other 
problems in Afghanistan," Mr. Costa said, adding that the lucrative 
nature of the heroin trade is creating a "narco-cartel" in 
Afghanistan that includes corrupt government and security officials.

It is easier to try to uproot the heroin trade at its source, where 
opium is grown, than its destination, he said, particularly because 
heroin trafficking is disrupted less effectively in affluent Western 
countries, despite their financial and police resources.

Mr. Costa was summarizing a report from the office he heads, the 
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which was released on Wednesday.

The opium crop from Afghanistan is refined to produce 375 tons of 
heroin, which makes up the bulk of the trade worldwide.

Drawing on figures supplied by the countries themselves, the United 
Nations report says that Iran intercepts 20 percent of the 105 tons 
of heroin that flows through its territory, Pakistan 17 percent of 
the 150 tons that comes in and Central Asian countries only 5 percent 
of the 100 tons that enters these nations.

Europeans consume about 88 tons of heroin per year, and the 
authorities seize only 2 percent of the heroin that enters Europe, 
mostly through Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, according to the report.

The annual death toll in all NATO countries from heroin overdoses is 
estimated to be more than 10,000, an annual total that is about five 
times higher the number of NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan in the 
past eight years, the report said.

The proceeds from the heroin trade help fuel the Taliban insurgency. 
When the Taliban were in power a decade ago in Afghanistan, heroin 
produced $100 million a year in taxes, the report said. The 
insurgents are now estimated to be gaining $160 million a year from 
trafficking in the drug.

Mr. Costa recommended that NATO forces concentrate on trying to 
dismantle the drug cartels in Afghanistan, instead of striking at 
individual farmers and crops.

By bombing drug laboratories, along with attacking traffickers and 
open drug markets, NATO troops have had limited success, he said, but 
they need to extend their reach. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake