Pubdate: Tue, 16 Apr 2002
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2002 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Jerry Seper

AFGHAN POPPY GROWERS SETTLE IN FOR LONG STRUGGLE

Drug policy chief John Walters yesterday said it could take as long 
as three years for the United States and its allies to ensure that 
Afghanistan does not return to the opium business as a key source of 
revenue.

Mr. Walters called efforts to restore Afghanistan's schools, health 
and economic institutions, and its police and security infrastructure 
a battle between allied forces and that nation's illicit poppy 
growers, who seek to return to business as usual.

"For the first time in history, we have an opportunity to influence 
the worldwide opium problem, working with our allies to do as much as 
we can to eradicate and disrupt the opium trade," he told editors and 
reporters at The Washington Times.

"It will require staying power, perhaps as long as two to three 
years, but banning opium production has got to be a priority," he 
said. "We cannot allow Afghanistan to again become a haven for 
illicit money, a haven for terrorists."

Mr. Walters, who heads the White House Office of National Drug 
Control Policy, also said Hamid Karzai, the leader of Afghanistan's 
interim government, has made "outstanding" progress in curtailing 
opium production in that country -- "even at substantial risk to 
himself and his government."

He said Mr. Karzai and other Afghan leaders have been threatened, and 
some involved in the eradication efforts have been killed.

The former Taliban regime, which was aligned closely with terrorist 
Osama bin Laden, collected millions of dollars a year in profits from 
illicit opium sales -- with some of the cash going to terrorists who 
hid and trained in Afghanistan.

After the Taliban took control in 1996, Afghanistan accounted for 
more than 70 percent of the global supply of poppies, the source crop 
for opium and heroin. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of the heroin 
sold in Europe was processed from opium produced and stockpiled in 
Afghanistan.

Drug Enforcement Administration officials have estimated that profits 
from opium sales netted the Taliban $40 million annually, with some 
estimates ranging far higher.

Mr. Walters said Afghan police and security officials have to be 
trained on how to eradicate and disrupt that country's opium 
production and that the job would fall mainly on military authorities 
and others from the United States, Great Britain and Germany.

He said major buyers of Afghan opium and heroin were in Britain and 
Germany, and that those countries had to be willing to "pay the 
price" to eliminate the drug's production and shipment to Europe.

Mr. Walters noted that the British already had begun eradication 
efforts, eliminating 1,000 acres just last week, and that Germany had 
begun to train Afghan police and security officials in anti-drug 
measures.

He said those efforts already have seen some results, adding that the 
purity of heroin arriving in Britain from Afghanistan is down.

"When the purity of the product drops, the market is under stress," 
he said. "It's like the Old West; when the supply is off, they start 
watering down the whiskey."

Mr. Walters noted that the first big test of the effectiveness of the 
effort to reduce opium production will come in October, when farmers 
there begin the planting season.

The crop generally is harvested for raw opium gum, from which heroin 
is made, between March and May.

"We will be in a better position next fall to figure out where we 
are," he said.

"We need to make a substantial effort to ensure that we are 
successful, but not pay the lion's share," he said. "It's time Europe 
stepped up to the plate."

The Bush administration's anti-drug strategy is focused on reducing 
supplies from foreign countries, undermining domestic demand and 
providing effective drug treatment to addicts.

The president has vowed to cut illegal drug use in America by 10 
percent within the next two years and by 25 percent within five years.

President Bush called for $19.2 billion to fight illegal drugs, a 2 
percent increase over current spending.
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