How can opium production have soared in Afghanistan recently?

Question

When the government was installed by the US? Could the CIA be benefitting financially I wonder? An author named Gary Webb wrote a book entitled "Dark Alliance: CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion" in 1998. He died soon afterwards as a result of two gunshot wounds to the back of his head. The verdict? Suicide! Go figure!

I'd like to add that soon after US forces gained air superiority over Afghanistan, the question was asked whether the opium fields should be sprayed with weedkiller. Wherever the answer came from, it was no! Why could that be? The locations of all the major fields are known - please wake up America as to how corrupt your government is.

Answer 1

well before the unjustified agression/invasion the taliban strictly controlled the country so that there is no negative act, before the invasion there is no drugs growing and no pornography, but now after that drugs growing is common p[ractice there and so is pornography, and the life standard of the people is keep decreasing and the war hasn't ended yet until now..

Answer 2

1. It is a low priority - keeping the Taliban from promoting international terrorism is priority one.
2. Authoritarian governments can get things done (even occasionally good things) - the Taliban all but eradicated opium poppy production so there was nowhere to go but up.
3. The land is not suited to growing much else so the rural folk either grow poppies or starve unless a viable alternative is given to them (they still get very little from it).
4. The Afghanastani government has very little influence outside the capital city - warlords/clan chiefs/etc hold the power so it is quite hard for them to stop it.
5. Aerial spraying causes greatly increased anti-government/anti-USA thinking since there is no viable alternative.

Answer 3

Corporatocracy administration Afghanistan power components and opium for Wall highway income. until eventually now 1980 Afghanistan produced 0% of the worlds opium. After the U. S./CIA backed Mujahadeen gained the Soviet/Afghan conflict by utilising 1986 they have been producing 40% of the worlds heroin furnish. by utilising 1999 they have been producing eighty% of the entire marketplace furnish. The Taliban rose to power and DESTROYED ninety 4% of the opium fields dropping approximately 3000 lots this is whilst the U.S. desperate to invade. on the instant U.S. controlled Afghanistan now components extra beneficial than ninety% of the worlds heroin and breaks new production archives each and every 3 hundred and sixty 5 days. "that's unquestionably that the human beings of the rustic don't understand our banking and financial gadget, for in the event that they did, i've got faith there could be a revolution until eventually now the following day morning."---Henry Ford

Answer 4

KABUL: Afghanistan’s opium production will increase by nearly 50% this year to a record 6,100 tonnes after an “alarming” jump in cultivation in the lawless south, the UN drugs office announced yesterday.

The area of land planted with opium – of which Afghanistan produces more than 90% of world supply – rose 59% this year as compared to last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.
The sharp increase in the number of acres planted would lead to a likely harvest of 6,100 tonnes – a 49% hike over the 4,100 tonnes produced the year before.

“This year’s harvest will be around 6,100 tonnes of opium – a staggering 92% of total world supply. It exceeds global consumption by 30%,” UNODC global executive director Antonio Maria Costa said in Kabul.
The hike comes despite government and international efforts costing millions of dollars to try to stop Afghanistan’s trade in illegal opium, most of which ends up in the heroin markets of Europe and central Asia.
“These are very alarming numbers. Afghanistan is increasingly hooked on its own drug,” Costa said after presenting the figures to President Hamid Karzai.

The spike follows a 21% drop in cultivation last year and a just over 2% dip in production. It was the first fall since the Taliban government was toppled in late 2001.
An annual UNODC survey found that the lawless southern province of Helmand planted 162% more opium this year than in 2005, accounting for more than 40% of the total area under cultivation.
In the country as a whole, the area of land planted with opium reached a record 165,000 hectares (407,550 acres) in 2006 compared with 104,000 last year, the UNODC statement said.

Answer 5

The Taliban suppressed the growing of opium in Afghanistan. It is a quck crop, which brings in cash for poor farmers who find it hard to grow anything else.
Now that the Taliban is no longer in control, opium farms are once more on the rise.
Perhaps we should do what the EU does - pay people not to farm!

Answer 6

suicide is often a gunshot to the BACK of the head!! its the yank government covering up coz they want all the money so they can overpower the rest of the world.why couldnt the country elect its own officials?? coz the yanks want oil etc. now im british and we are not saints.mr blair is a tw@ and is bumming bush (never thought i would see that in the same sentence) so he can get a cut of the dosh.everyone knows what they are doing so why do we let them.if the whole world turned against bush and blair we would all be alot happier.saddam is dead mission accomplished.now leave the people alone.

Answer 7

Obviously corruption and bribery may be responsible for increase in cultivation of opium. Present Government was installed after consultations as then ruler failed to co-operate with USA and no alternate was available to stabilize the country.

Answer 8

Burn all the fields and arrest every farmer that planted them! After one day in an Afghanistan jail they should be ready to do something more productive! If bush fails to do what's right we will know the truth once more about him!

Answer 9

i live in a town that has a huge number of addicts , who are robbing and mugging people for their habbits .
a lot more should be done to stop drugs getting into the country .
i very much doubt it was suicide

Answer 10

Looks like the nutters are controlling the world. Very worrying