Daily Lessons from Life 22 October 2009

"UN details "devastating" impact of Afghan opium Posted: 22 October 2009 1612 hrs

VIENNA : Afghan opium is unleashing a "devastating" impact across the world, according to a new UN report, funding the Taliban and other terror groups and killing thousands in consumer countries.

Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world's opium in a trade that is worth some 65 billion dollars (43 billion euros), feeds some 15 million addicts worldwide and kills around 100,000 people annually, the report said.


"We have identified the global consequences of the Afghan opium trade. Some are devastating," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). "I urge the friends of Afghanistan to recognize that, to a large extent, these uncomfortable truths may be the result of their benign neglect," he said at Wednesday's unveiling of the report.

Western nations have 100,000 troops in Afghanistan battling Taliban insurgents, but the report said the failure to crack down on production of opium -- the basis of heroin -- has allowed the militants to thrive.

"The Taliban's direct involvement in the opium trade allows them to fund a war machine that is becoming technologically more complex and increasingly widespread," said Costa. The UNODC estimates the Taliban earned 90-160 million dollars a year from taxing the production and smuggling of opium and heroin between 2005 and 2009, as much as double the amount they earned while in power nearly a decade ago.

The drugs also have a devastating impact in consumer countries. Heroin overdoses kill more than 10,000 people in NATO countries every year -- five times the total number of alliance troops that have been killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of 2001.

"Seizing Afghan opium where it is produced is infinitely more efficient and cheaper than trying to do so where it is consumed," Costa said. "This is not just a shared responsibility: it's hard-headed self-interest." The UN report said many of Afghanistan's drug barons with links to the insurgency "are known to Afghan and foreign intelligence services". But their names have not been submitted to the UN Security Council, despite two resolutions designed to ban their foreign travel and seize their assets, it said."

A stark reminder of how big the drug trade is! I always thought that the Golden Triangle in the South East Asia countries is the biggest production base or the Columbia jungles!

Lessons for me are:

1. if it is illegal and fetch a high price, someone will do it!;

2. the constant debates of 'legalized it and to be sold by the governments' vs. 'letting the market forces do it' are heading nowhere. My personal inclination is to 'legalize it and to be sold by the government' as it is offer a chance for the government to help the addicts through education and not forced 'cold turkey' treatments. My belief is that given a choice, nobody will consciously put his or her body and mind to harm by being an addict;

3. as to the simple logic of killing off the source makes a lot of sense. I read that many efforts towards this end were initiated and incentives offered for farmers to switch crops or do something else and not do opium. The simple truth is: refer to point no. 1 mentioned above. It simply has to be benefits of switching outweighed the costs. I don't think it will as long as the drug trade is deemed illegal and not controlled by the government!

Interesting to learn that the UN is involved with trying to get rid of narcotic at source. An effort that deserve more attention and support from members.