Friday, October 23, 2009
Opium in Afghanistan
One more factor to take into account as President Barack Obama frames his Afghanistan war strategy is a United Nations report that shows that sacrifices on the battlefield pale in comparison to the human cost of the opium drug market. According to Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: The Transnational Threat of Afghan Opium, about 100,000 people die worldwide each year from opium that originates in Afghanistan. In NATO countries the number of heroin-related overdoses annually (more than 10,000) is five times higher than the total number of NATO troops killed in Afghanistan in the past eight years.
Afghanistan’s opium has created a $65 billion drug market that contributes to the addictions of 15 million users, and provides significant amounts of funding for the Taliban to fight the U.S. and its allies. The country produces 92% of the world’s opium, most of which is smuggled through Pakistan, Central Asia and Iran on its way to addicts in Europe and Russia. The report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says that only a tiny portion of the opium that leaves Afghanistan is ever captured by law enforcement, and that more people die globally from Afghan opium than from any other drug.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
UNODC Reveals Devastating Impact of Afghan Opium (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
Afghan Opium Fuels 'Global Chaos' (BBC News)
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