Afghanistan increased its opium production by 49 per cent in one year according to a new UN report. The war-torn country's poppy crops dramatically rose in 2006, increasing the country's yield by roughly 49 per cent from a year earlier and pushing global opium production to a new record high. Opium production in Afghanistan increased from 4,100 metric tons in 2005 to 6,100 metric tons in 2006, according to the 2007 World Drug Report released by the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Opium is the main ingredient for heroin. [continues 756 words]
Afghanistan's Helmand province, heartland of Taliban guerrillas fighting NATO forces, is about to become the world's largest drug supplier, the United Nations said today. Helmand, a province in the south of Afghanistan, cultivated more drugs than entire countries such as Myanmar, Morocco or even Colombia, the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crimes said in its 2007 World Drug Report. "Curing Helmand of its drug and insurgency cancer will rid the world of the most dangerous source of its most dangerous narcotic, and go a long way to bringing security to the region," said UNODC Director Antonio Marias Costa in the report's preface. [continues 277 words]
Canadian Funds to Fight Narcotics Trade Left Unspent UNITED NATIONS - Four months after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a substantial increase in funding for Afghan reconstruction and development -- with a large portion of the new money slated for anti-drug programs -- Afghanistan's cumbersome bureaucracy has managed to spend only a fraction of the windfall. Britain, chief donor to the US$42.3-million fund, is so alarmed it has "turned off the [money] tap" until Afghanistan's ministries show they can spend the cash, which has languished in the Counter Narcotics Trust Fund since its inception in 2005. [continues 692 words]
The Chief Donor to the Fund, Britain, Is So Alarmed by the Lack of Progress That Is Has 'Turned Off the Tap,' Writes Steven Edwards at the United Nations. Back in February, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced to great fanfare that his government would substantially increase its funding for Afghan reconstruction and development. A big portion of that new money, Mr. Harper said, was earmarked for anti-drug programs, including a fund to be spent by the Afghan government. It now emerges the Afghan bureaucracy is so cumbersome that almost $42.3 million U.S. that Canada and other donors have given to the Counter Narcotics Trust Fund since its 2005 launch is languishing in bank accounts, unused. [continues 507 words]
Afghanistan's opium crop appears set to rise by up to 20 per cent in the wake of last year's record haul, prompting calls for NATO and United States forces to play a bigger role in the war on drugs. With growing drug profits flowing to the Taleban, western governments are being urged to use a two-pronged approach: combining their efforts on anti-narcotics and anti-terrorism. Thomas Schweich, a senior US state department official, has briefed NATO ambassadors in Brussels and General Dan McNeill, the top NATO general in Afghanistan, on the need for increased military co-operation on the drug front. [continues 1042 words]
While The Outside World Targets Afghanistan's Exports Of Opiates, Addiction Inside The Country Gets Little Attention KABUL - Brothers Abdul Jabar and Abdul Sitar crouch on the floor of their spartan Kabul living room, each light up a small heroin cigarette and draw deeply on the powerful drug. Nearby, several of their 11 small children watch impassively. For the kids, this is nothing unusual. Their fathers have been addicted to heroin, and largely incapacitated by it, since long before they were born. [continues 1168 words]
Afghanistan Faces Spiralling Drug Problem Brothers Abdul Jabar and Abdul Sitar crouch on the floor of their spartan Kabul living room as each light up a small heroin cigarette and draw deeply. Nearby, several of their 11 small children watch impassively. For the kids, this is nothing unusual. Their fathers have been addicted to heroin, and largely incapacitated by it, since long before they were born. Two of the older boys, who look about eight or nine, generate the family's only income by selling products off a cart after school. [continues 399 words]
A 2005 UN study estimated there were a million Afghan addicts, writes Tom Blackwell in Kabul. The number of heroin addicts in the city doubled between 2003 and 2005. Brothers Abdul Jabar and Abdul Sitar crouch on the floor of their spartan Kabul living room, each light up a small heroin cigarette and draw deeply on the powerful drug. Nearby, several of their 11 small children watch impassively. For the youngsters, this is nothing unusual. Their fathers have been addicted to heroin, and largely incapacitated by it, since long before they were born. [continues 676 words]
Explosion In Numbers Includes Afghan Children Working In Fields KABUL, Afghanistan - As brothers Abdul Jabar and Abdul Sitar crouch on the floor of their spartan Kabul living room, each light up a small heroin cigarette and draw deeply on the powerful drug. Nearby, several of their 11 small children watch impassively. For the kids, this is nothing unusual. Their fathers have been addicted to heroin, and largely incapacitated by it, since long before they were born. Two of the older boys, who look about eight or nine, generate the family's only income by selling products off a cart after school. [continues 530 words]
The Abundant Supply Of Poppies In Afghanistan Has Taken A Terrible Toll At Home Brothers Abdul Jabar and Abdul Sitar crouch on the floor of their spartan Kabul living room, each light up a small heroin cigarette and draw deeply on the powerful drug. Nearby, several of their 11 small children watch impassively. For the kids, this is nothing unusual. Their fathers have been addicted to heroin, and largely incapacitated by it, since long before they were born. Two of the older boys, who look about 8 or 9, generate the family's only income by selling products off a cart after school. [continues 871 words]
U.S. Hopes For Colombia-Like Stability KABUL: In a walled compound near Kabul, two members of Colombia's counternarcotics police force are trying to teach raw Afghan recruits how to wage close-quarter combat. Using mock wooden AK-47 assault rifles, Lieutenant John Castaneda and Corporal John Orejuela demonstrate commando tactics to about 20 new members of what is intended to be an elite Afghan drug strike force. The recruits - who U.S. officials say lack even basic law enforcement skills - watch wide-eyed. [continues 1814 words]
Taliban Thrives Along With Opium Production KABUL, Afghanistan - In a walled compound outside Kabul, two members of Colombia's counternarcotics police force are trying to teach raw Afghan recruits how to wage close-quarters combat. Using mock wooden AK-47 assault rifles, Lt. John Castaneda and Cpl. John Orejuela demonstrate commando tactics to about 20 new members of what is intended to be an elite Afghan drug strike force. The recruits - who American officials say lack even basic law enforcement skills - watch wide-eyed. [continues 746 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan - In a walled compound outside Kabul, two members of Colombia's counternarcotics police force are trying to teach raw Afghan recruits how to wage close-quarters combat. Using wooden mock AK-47 assault rifles, Lt. John Castaneda and Cpl. John Orejuela demonstrate commando tactics to about 20 new members of what is intended to be an elite Afghan drug strike force. The recruits - - who American officials say lack even basic law enforcement skills - watch wide-eyed. "This is kindergarten," said Vincent Balbo, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration chief in Kabul, whose office is overseeing the training. "It's Narcotics 101." Another D.E.A. agent added: "We are at a stage now of telling these recruits, 'This is a handgun, this is a bullet.' " [continues 2652 words]
Fields Are Alive But Those Pretty Blooms Mean Bumper Crop Of Heroin The fields of southern Afghanistan are once again alive with poppies and, once again, the forces charged with keeping the controversial crop out of the ground can't seem to do a thing about it. Millions of brilliant red, white and yellow flowers bob in the gentle spring wind, promising a bumper crop of heroin - possibly Afghanistan's largest - will be ready for sale on the streets of Europe and North America by fall. [continues 1467 words]
With Afghan officials predicting a 'dark future,' many poor farmers are faced with little choice but to tend their crops of opium poppies that fuels the insurgency, writes Jonathan Fowlie in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Jonathan Fowlie The Ottawa Citizen The fields of southern Afghanistan are once again alive with poppies and, once again, the forces charged with keeping the controversial crop out of the ground can't seem to do a thing about it. Millions of brilliant red, white and yellow flowers bob in the gentle spring wind, promising a bumper crop of heroin -- possibly Afghanistan's largest -- will be ready for sale on the streets of Europe and North America by fall. [continues 1069 words]
Paper money has all but disappeared from the village of Shahran-e-Khash. Instead the common currency is the one resource Afghanistan has no shortage of - opium. At the market in this remote north-eastern corner of Afghanistan, five litres of engine oil - worth around UKP5 - can be bought for 100g of opium. Two bottles of Coca-Cola will set you back 18g. Even the children use opium to buy goods. "All the children put a little bit of opium on a leaf as payment. They ask the shopkeeper, 'Please give me a pen, give me two notebooks, give me two biscuits and three pieces of chewing gum'," explained Shahran Pur, a tribal elder. [continues 673 words]
Troops Grinding It Out In The Desert Laugh At Soft Life Of KAF CANADA ISN'T the only place with two solitudes. When I first landed at Kandahar Airfield a month ago, I figured this was life-or-death Afghanistan. Turns out I was wrong. After spending a few weeks with troops who spend most of their time outside the wire, it became obvious that the massive base everyone here refers to as KAF is not a particularly unpleasant or dangerous hardship post. [continues 1400 words]
Nearly a century since the humble poppy first blossomed as an enduring symbol of military sacrifice, Canada's soldiers find themselves shoulder-deep in flowers of a very different colour, striking a delicate diplomatic balance between policy and practicality. The opium poppies that blanket Afghanistan in spring are far different and a great deal more treacherous than the red Remembrance Day variety that bloom on city streets in November. [continues 883 words]
Soldiers Caught Between U.S. Policy And Informants Nearly a century since the humble poppy first blossomed as an enduring symbol of military sacrifice, Canada's soldiers find themselves shoulder-deep in flowers of a very different colour, striking a delicate diplomatic balance between policy and practicality. The opium poppies that blanket Afghanistan in spring are far different and a great deal more treacherous than the red Remembrance Day variety that bloom on city streets in November. As Canadian soldiers patrol the vibrant pink opium fields of southern Afghanistan, they walk a narrow bridge of neutral territory that divides the Afghan government's U.S.-backed program to rid the country of poppies from the interests of dirt-poor growers whose help keeps coalition soldiers alive. [continues 605 words]
Nearly a century since the humble poppy first blossomed as an enduring symbol of military sacrifice, Canada's soldiers find themselves shoulder-deep in flowers of a very different colour, striking a delicate diplomatic balance between policy and practicality. The opium poppies that blanket Afghanistan in spring are far different and a great deal more treacherous than the red Remembrance Day variety that bloom on city streets in November. As Canadian soldiers patrol the vibrant pink opium fields of southern Afghanistan, they walk a narrow bridge of neutral territory that divides the Afghan government's U.S.-backed program to rid the country of poppies from the interests of dirt-poor growers whose help keeps coalition soldiers alive. [continues 619 words]
Inside Afghanistan
