Pubdate: Thu, 03 May 2007
Source: Chomedey Laval News, The (CN QU)
Copyright: 2007 The Chomedey Laval News
Contact:  http://www.chomedeynews.ca
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2596
Author: Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Afghanistan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/poppy+farming

OCCUPATION FORCES SUPPORT AFGHAN NARCOTICS TRADE

The occupation forces in Afghanistan are supporting the drug trade,
which brings between 120 and 194 billion dollars of revenues to
organized crime, intelligence agencies and Western financial
institutions. The proceeds of this lucrative multibllion dollar
contraband are deposited in Western banks. Almost the totality of
revenues accrue to corporate interests and criminal syndicates outside
Afghanistan.

The Golden Crescent drug trade, launched by the CIA in the early
1980s, continues to be protected by US intelligence, in liason with
NATO occupation forces and the British military. In recent
developments, British occupation forces have promoted opium
cultivation through paid radio advertisements.

"A radio message broadcast across the province assured local farmers
that the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would
not interfere with poppy fields currently being harvested.

"Respected people of Helmand. The soldiers of ISAF and ANA do not
destroy poppy fields," it said. "They know that many people of
Afghanistan have no choice but to grow poppy. ISAF and the ANA do not
want to stop people from earning their livelihoods." (Quoted in The
Guardian, 27 April 2007)

While the controversial opium ads have been casually dismissed as an
unfortunate mistake, there are indications that the opium economy is
being promoted at the political level (including the British
government of Tony Blair).

The Senlis Council, an international think tank specialising in
security and policy issues is proposing the development of licit opium
exports in Afghanistan, with a view to promoting the production of
pharmaceutical pain-killers, such as morphine and codeine. According
to the Senlis Council, "the poppies are needed and, if properly
regulated, could provide a legal source of income to impoverished
Afghan farmers while, at the same time, depriving the drug lords and
the Taliban of much of their income." (John Polanyi, Globe and Mail,
23 September 2006)

The Senlis Council offers an alternative where "regulated poppy
production in Afghanistan" could be developed to produce needed
painkillers. The Senlis statement, however, fails to address the
existing structure of licit opium exports, which is characterised by
oversupply .

The Senlis' campaign is part of the propaganda campaign. It has
contrbuted to providing a false legitimacy to Afghanistan's opium
economy. (See details of Senlis Project), which ultmately serves
powerful vested interests.

How much opium acreage is required to supply the pharmaceutical
industry? According to the International Narcotics Control Board
(INCB), which has a mandate to exame issues pertaining to the supply
of and demand for opiates used for medical purposes, "the supply of
such opiates has for years been at levels well in excess of global
demand".(Asian Times, February 2006) The INCB has recommended reducing
the production of opiates due to oversupply.

At present, India is the largest exporter of licit opium, supplying
approximately 50 percent of licit sales to pharmaceutical companies
involved in the production of pain-killing drugs. Turkey is also a
major producer of licit opium.

India's opium latex "is sold to licensed pharmaceutical and/or
chemical manufacturing firms such as Mallinckrodt and Johnson &
Johnson, under rules established by the UN Commission on Narcotic
Drugs and the International Narcotics Control Board, which require an
extensive paper trail." (Opium in India)

The area allocated to licit State controlled opium cultivation in
India is of the order of a modest 11,000 hectares, suggesting that the
entire demand of the global pharmaceutical industry requires
approximately 22,000 hectares of land allocated to poppy production.
Opium for pharmaceutical use is not in short supply. The demand of the
pharmaceutical industry is already met.

Soaring Afghan Opium Production

The United Nations has announced that opium poppy cultivation in
Afghanistan has soared. There was a 59% increase in areas under opium
cultivation in 2006. Production of opium is estimated to have
increased by 49% in relation to 2005.

The Western media in chorus blame the Taliban and the warlords.
Western officials are said to believe that "the trade is controlled by
25 smugglers including three government ministers." (Guardian, op.
cit).

Yet in a bitter irony, US military presence has served to restore
rather than eradicate the drug trade. Opium production has increased
33 fold from 185 tons in 2001 under the Taliban to 6100 tons in 2006.
Cultivated areas have increased 21 fold since the 2001 US-led invasion.

What the media reports fail to acknowledge is that the Taliban
government was instrumental in 2000-2001 in implementing a successful
drug eradication program, with the support and collaboration of the
UN.

Implemented in 2000-2001, the Taliban's drug eradication program led
to a 94 percent decline in opium cultivation. In 2001, according to UN
figures, opium production had fallen to 185 tons. Immediately
following the October 2001 US led invasion, production increased
dramatically, regaining its historical levels.

The Vienna based UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that the 2006
harvest will be of the order of 6,100 tonnes, 33 times its production
levels in 2001 under the Taliban government (3200 % increase in 5 years).

Cultivation in 2006 reached a record 165,000 hectares compared with
104,000 in 2005 and 7,606 in 2001 under the Taliban

Multibillion dollar trade

According to the UN, Afghanistan supplies in 2006 some 92 percent of
the world's supply of opium, which is used to make heroin.

The UN estimates that for 2006, the contribution of the drug trade to
the Afghan economy is of the order of 2.7 billion. What it fails to
mention is the fact that more than 95 percent of the revenues
generated by this lucrative contraband accrues to business syndicates,
organized crime and banking and financial institutions. A very small
percentage accrues to farmers and traders in the producing country.

"Afghan heroin sells on the international narcotics market for 100
times the price farmers get for their opium right out of the field".
(US State Department quoted by the Voice of America (VOA), 27 February
2004).

Based on wholesale and retail prices in Western markets, the earnings
generated by the Afghan drug trade are colossal. In July 2006, street
prices in Britain for heroin were of the order of Pound Sterling 54,
or $102 a gram.

Narcotics On the Streets of Western Europe

One kilo of opium produces approximately 100 grams of (pure) heroin.
6100 tons of opium allows the production of 1220 tons of heroin with a
50 percent purity ratio.

The average purity of retailed heroin can vary. It is on average 36%.
In Britain, the purity is rarely in excess of 50 percent, while in the
US it can be of the order of 50-60 percent.

Based on the structure of British retail prices for heroin, the total
proceeds of the Afghan heroin trade would be of the order of 124.4
billion dollars, assuming a 50 percent purity ratio. Assuming an
average purity ratio of 36 percent and the average British price, the
cash value of Afghan heroin sales would be of the order of 194.4
billion dollars.

While these figures do not constitute precise estimates, they
nonetheless convey the sheer magnitude of this multibillion dollar
narcotics trade out of Afghanistan. Based on the first figure which
provides a conservative estimate, the cash value of these sales, once
they reach Western retail markets are in excess of 120 billion dollars
a year.

The UNODC estimates the average retail price of heroin for 2004 to be
of the order of $157 per gram, based on the average purity ratio).

Narcotics: Second to Oil and the Arms Trade

The foregoing estimates are consistent with the UN's assessment
concerning the size and magnitude of the global drug trade.

The Afghan trade in opiates (92 percent of total World production of
opiates) constitutes a large share of the worldwide annual turnover of
narcotics, which was estimated by the United Nations to be of the
order of $400-500 billion.

(Douglas Keh, Drug Money in a Changing World, Technical document No.
4, 1998, Vienna UNDCP, p. 4. See also United Nations Drug Control
Program, Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 1999,
E/INCB/1999/1 United Nations, Vienna 1999, p. 49-51, and Richard
Lapper, UN Fears Growth of Heroin Trade, Financial Times, 24 February
2000).

Based on 2003 figures, drug trafficking constitutes "the third biggest
global commodity in cash terms after oil and the arms trade." (The
Independent, 29 February 2004).

Afghanistan and Colombia (together with Bolivia and Peru) consitute
the largest drug producing economies in the world, which feed a
flourishing criminal economy. These countries are heavily militarized.
The drug trade is protected. Amply documented the CIA has played a
central role in the development of both the Latin American and Asian
drug triangles.

The IMF estimated global money laundering to be between 590 billion
and 1.5 trillion dollars a year, representing 2-5 percent of global
GDP. (Asian Banker, 15 August 2003).

A large share of global money laundering as estimated by the IMF is
linked to the trade in narcotics, one third of which is tied to the
Golden Crescent opium triangle.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Derek