Drug War Finances Terrorism PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE DrugSense FOCUS Alert #223 Tuesday October 16, 2001 The all too real threat of international terrorism makes the $50 billion war on some drugs seem ludicrous in comparison. Reasonable people will agree that mass murder and consensual vices are two very different things. With the war on terrorism now the number one national security priority, drug warriors are seeking to capitalize on the nation's tragedy in order to minimize the inevitable shift in resources. We cannot stand idle while drug war profiteers attempt to link the war on terrorism to the war on drugs in the public's mind. Now is the time to make clear to Americans that patriotism and opposition to the drug war are not mutually exclusive. As reformers, we need to be supportive of a war on terrorism that enjoys overwhelming public support, while tactfully pointing out the potential collateral damage of a war on drugs that is viewed as a failure by a majority of Americans. Potential LTE talking points include the following: * Dropping the zero tolerance approach to drugs and implementing demand reduction strategies like prescription heroin maintenance for existing addicts will do more to undermine the Taliban than the failed drug war. * The Taliban have already voluntarily limited production in order to increase the value of their current opium stockpile. A further intensification of the drug war threatens to provide the brutal Taliban regime with additional price supports. * Drug warriors have spent billions trying to eradicate coca and heroin in South America. It's had the perverse effect of empowering communist guerilla movements by limiting supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant. The various armed factions tearing Colombia apart are financially dependent on the U.S. drug war. * Separating the hard and soft drug markets via marijuana regulation is critical. As long as marijuana remains illegal, consumers of the most popular illicit drug will continue to come into contact with sellers of harder drugs. * The vast majority of illicit heroin produced in Afghanistan is consumed in Europe. The unlikely possibility of a successful eradication campaign could potentially lead to a massive crime wave on the European continent when desperate addicts increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. * As long as the drug war continues to generate inflated black market profits, any fringe group with a militant agenda can tap into the black market to fund terrorist activities. Please write a letter to the USA Today and explain that the drug war is part of the problem, not the solution. If possible, take care to include support for the war on terrorism. It's critical that the two are de-linked. PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID (Letter, Phone, fax etc.) Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent letter list ( ) if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to Your letter will then be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit. To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm and/or http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is one very effective way of gauging our impact and effectiveness. Contact Info: Source: USA Today (US) Contact: ARTICLE Pubdate: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 Source: USA Today (US) Copyright: 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc Page: 1A - Front Page - Cover Story Contact: Website: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466 Authors: Donna Leinwand, Toni Locy and Vivienne Walt, USA TODAY Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?203 (Terrorism) U.S. EXPECTED TO TARGET AFGHANISTAN'S OPIUM As American bombers continue to pound Taliban facilities in Afghanistan, U.S. officials say the campaign against the terrorist-friendly regime inevitably will target its biggest moneymaker: a vibrant drug network that supplies more than 70% of the world's opium. Authorities in the USA and Europe already have frozen an estimated $24 million in assets linked to Osama bin Laden, his al-Qa'eda terrorist network and the Taliban. But the American-led effort is just beginning to put a dent in a drug trade that U.S. officials believe nets the Taliban up to $30 million a year in taxes and tolls that it collects from Afghan drug rings. The opium continues to flow from Afghanistan, U.S. officials say, even though the Taliban last year vowed to ban opium cultivation and to direct farmers toward crops that would help feed millions who live in poverty. Taliban leaders declared that heroin, which is derived from opium, was anti-Islam. The United Nations estimates that Afghanistan's opium crop seems to have dropped by more than 90% this year from the nearly 3,300 metric tons produced in 2000. But now the Taliban either is unwilling or unable to enforce the opium ban, which U.S. and U.N. officials say appears to have been largely a ploy to drive up opium prices by limiting the supply. U.N. officials say that for the past several years, Afghan drug rings have been stockpiling about 60% of their annual opium harvests. Those reserves, which intelligence sources say were being held in at least 40 warehouses throughout Afghanistan earlier this year, have been a financial safeguard for the Taliban. U.S. officials suspect the reserves also have been part of an effort by the Taliban and drug groups to control heroin prices worldwide, just as oil cartels manipulated crude prices in the 1970s. If that was the Taliban's strategy, it worked - for a while. In July 2000, when the Taliban told Afghan farmers to stop growing opium or risk execution, a kilogram of the drug sold for about $44 wholesale, the U.N. says. A year later, a kilogram cost $400. But since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the USA, opium prices have plummeted and now are back below $100 a kilogram. Still, street prices for heroin across Europe have remained low, an indication that Afghanistan likely has kept the supply of opium steady by releasing its reserves. U.S. and U.N. analysts say that Afghan drug rings now are dumping some opium reserves onto the market in an effort to empty warehouses before U.S.-led air raids can destroy them. "When there is a war, everyone tries to convert everything into cash," says Mohammad Fallah, head of the drug-control program in neighboring Iran, where anxious officials say the bombing in Afghanistan is likely to create waves of opium smugglers trying to cross the border. Iran is a popular thoroughfare for smugglers traveling from Afghanistan to western Europe, where officials say most of the heroin on the streets originates in Afghanistan. (About 5% of the heroin from Afghanistan winds up in the USA, where most of the heroin comes from Mexico and Colombia.) Analysts say the importance of drug money to the Taliban offers U.S. officials the chance to launch a major strike against the worldwide heroin trade as part of their anti-terrorism campaign. U.S. officials "realize that the (drug) money is critical" to the Taliban, says Neil Livingstone, author of several books on terrorism and chairman of Global Options, an international risk management company in Washington, D.C. "Afghanistan has no means of supporting its military, except with opium (sales). Everyone recognizes the need to go after the opium." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has declined to say how or when U.S. forces might do that. "The heroin trade is ultimately very important (to U.S. anti-terrorism efforts) because it's a revenue source for a very dangerous regime," says Asa Hutchinson, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "Without curtailing the heroin trade, you cannot succeed in Afghanistan." An Opium Nation In a rugged, mostly barren nation of 27 million people that has been decimated by war, poverty and drought, opium dominates not just the economy but everyday life. It is grown in 22 of Afghanistan's 30 provinces, and for struggling farmers across the nation the poppy literally has been a lifesaver. Opium has been in Afghanistan for centuries, but became an economic force only after the end of Afghanistan's 10-year war with the Soviet Union in 1989. That conflict, along with an ongoing civil war, destroyed Afghanistan's crop irrigation system. Because opium poppies require little water or maintenance and are in demand worldwide, many food-producing farmers turned to the drug trade. That shut down much of Afghanistan's already tenuous food supply chain. Today, opium isn't just Afghanistan's only significant cash crop - it's the dominant currency. Opium and its derivatives made through chemical processing - heroin, morphine base and opium gum - are traded for guns, food and shelter. The footprints of the Afghan opium trade can be seen throughout Asia and Europe. Drug addiction is a growing problem in Afghanistan, drug policy analysts say. In neighboring Iran and Pakistan border jails are filled with drug smugglers, and officials are struggling to deal with an estimated 2.5 million addicts. In Germany, Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe, officials say Afghanistan is by far the leading source of heroin. "We know the Taliban regime is largely funded by the drug trade and that 90% of the heroin on British streets originates in Afghanistan," British Prime Minister Tony Blair says. The Complexities Of A Drug War Because Afghanistan's opium trade is such a menace to its neighbors, some officials in Europe and western Asia are hoping that the U.S.-led war on terrorism takes down the Afghan drug trade along with the Taliban. A U.S. official who asked not to be identified said that given the opium trade's importance to those who support terrorism, American forces would be justified in spraying Afghan fields to kill opium poppies, and in destroying stockpiles of opium or processed heroin. Such spraying could be done in February, when the next crop of opium poppies begins to blossom. "It's a logical step," the official says. Livingstone says he's "100% sure" that U.S. forces have made plans to disrupt and destroy Afghanistan's drug trade. But U.S. officials acknowledge that going after Afghanistan's drug trade is fraught with complications: * Harvested opium and processed heroin are easy to hide, and U.S. officials aren't sure where all of Afghanistan's stockpiled opium is. * After the opium crops are dead, then what? Analysts say that any effort to eliminate the backbone of Afghanistan's economy would have to be followed with a massive aid program to help feed millions and help farmers make the switch to legitimate crops. Before the bombs began falling in Afghanistan, the U.N. estimated that $250 million in aid would be needed to help Afghan farmers switch from opium to food crops. Many Afghans who are struggling to stay fed and clothed rely on the opium trade as their sole means of support and might rebel against anyone who took away their livelihood, analysts say. * The Northern Alliance, the USA's ally of convenience, doesn't appear to be that different from the Taliban when it comes to skimming money from drug networks. Although the alliance controls only a small percentage of the land used to grow opium in Afghanistan, U.N. officials say they believe that drug money is key to the alliance's funding. If the alliance rises to power and winds up in position to collect as much in opium "taxes" as the Taliban did, it's unclear whether the alliance really would agree to crack down on cultivation of the poppy. "Prospects for progress on drug-control efforts in Afghanistan remain dim as long as the country remains at war," a State Department report said in March. "Nothing indicates that either the Taliban or the Northern Alliance intend to take serious action to destroy heroin or morphine base laboratories, or stop drug trafficking." "The more turmoil in (Afghanistan), the more opium will play a role," says Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the U.N.'s drug control program. Arlacchi says that once the shooting stops in Afghanistan - and the Taliban presumably is ousted - the world should help to rebuild the troubled nation. That sentiment has been echoed by President Bush, who says the USA's disinterest in helping Afghanistan after its war with the Soviet Union help to create its current unrest and desperation. Teaching Afghanistan's farmers to grow something besides opium will be key, Arlacchi says. "Otherwise, we will be pumping money into Afghanistan that will go into the wrong hands, and Afghanistan will continue to be the headache to the international community that it has been for 200 years." SAMPLE LETTER To the editor of the USA Today: Like many Americans I'm very concerned with national security these days. As a patriot and a taxpayer, I find it very disturbing that entrenched interests in Washington are seeking to capitalize on America's tragedy. I'm referring to the various drug warriors quoted in your Oct. 16th article on the brutal Taliban regime's taxation of the countries opium crop. Drug warriors have good reason to worry. The all too real threat of international terrorism makes the $50 billion war on consensual vices seem ludicrous in comparison. A long overdue shift in government resources is inevitable. Clearly the Taliban need to be removed from power for harboring the evil terrorists who attacked America on Sep. 11th. However, in this instance the drug war is part of the problem, not the solution. As noted in your article, the Taliban have already voluntarily limited production in order to increase the value of their current opium stockpile. A further intensification of the drug war threatens to provide the brutal Taliban regime with additional price supports. Look no further than America's backyard for proof of the drug war's collateral damage. The various armed factions tearing Colombia apart are financially dependent on profits engendered by the U.S. drug war. As long as drug prohibition remains in effect, any terrorist group can tap into the black market's outrageously inflated profits to finance death and destruction. Alcohol prohibition once financed organized crime and violence too, which is precisely why it was repealed in 1933. Can we really afford to continue subsidizing terrorists and criminals with our tax dollars? Robert Sharpe contact info IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for his/her work. TARGET ANALYSIS USA Today With a U.S. circulation of over 2.3 million, the readership demographics are: Total Adult Readers 4.3 million. Male/Female 66/34%. Median Age 41 years. Attended College 80%. Median HH Income $71, 661. The average published letter would cost over $5,000 if purchased as an ad. The MAP published letter archive has 53 letters from USA Today. A recent sample shows they tend to be short - about 40% being under 100 words. The average published is 169 words, and the largest about 300 words. The published letters can be viewed here: http://www.mapinc.org/mapcgi/ltedex.pl?SOURCE=USA+Today ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts Letter Writers Resources: http://www.mapinc.org/resource/ TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm Prepared by Robert Sharpe - http://www.drugpolicy.org - Focus Alert Specialist

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