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Attempt To Eradicate Afghan Opium Fails
Pubdate: Wed, 02 Mar 2005
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Alan Travis, Home Affairs Editor
UK ATTEMPT TO ERADICATE AFGHAN OPIUM FAILS
Afghanistan is on the verge of becoming a "narcotic state" with its biggest
annual crop of opium since the overthrow of the Taliban, the United Nations
drug control board warns today.
The International Narcotics Control Board reports that the opium crop in
Afghanistan - which is the source of more than 90% of the heroin sold on
Britain's streets - reached a bumper 4,200 tonnes, up 800 tonnes on the
previous year.
The rise is a blow to Tony Blair who told the Labour party conference in
2000 that the war against the Taliban was an opportunity to eradicate the
poppy harvest which is the source of three-quarters of all the world's heroin.
The INCB report says that Britain has the highest heroin seizure rate in
Europe and the third highest number of heroin addicts.
The publication of the UN report also coincides with Home Office figures
showing that the cocaine and crack culture is reaching record levels in
England and Wales. The figures show the number of class A drug offences,
including those involving heroin and cocaine, rose by 5% to 35,610 in 2003.
Hamid Ghodse, the INCB's president, said the British-led attempt to
persuade Afghan farmers to grow other cash crops had failed. In 2003
farmers grew 3,600 tonnes of opium poppies in 17 out of the 28 districts of
Afghanistan. Now it has spread to all 28 districts, with the area under
cultivation increasing last year from 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres) to
130,000 hectares. The INCB said this compared with only 165 tonnes grown
during the brutally enforced ban by the Taliban on opium production.
"The Afghanistan government needs to do something very serious, very
quickly," said Professor Ghodse. "If it is not going to be a narcotics
state, which is a risk, then Afghanistan needs to do very urgent action in
eradication and alternative development."
Although opium prices fell considerably between 2003 and 2004 they remain
above $100 (52) a kg - far higher than any other cash crop - and a crucial
source of finance for the private armies of the drug warlords in Afghanistan.
The crop eradication programme is supported by a British-led international
consortium, and tries to persuade farmers to grow alternative crops through
negotiation. But it is now believed to be under pressure from the American
administration which wants to adopt a forced crop eradication programme
similar to that seen in Colombia in the last five years.
The UN report also warns of an alarming spread in HIV/Aids among injecting
drug users in eastern Europe, Russia and central Europe with an estimated 4
million people now believed to be infected.
Britain's former deputy drug tsar Mike Trace said yesterday there would be
an alarming US-led attempt next week at the UN's annual commission on
narcotic drugs meeting in Vienna to rule out the use of needle exchange and
other programmes to deal with the growing epidemic.
Needle exchange schemes have been used in Britain since the 1980s to ensure
one of the lowest rates of HIV infection among heroin injectors in Europe.
Mr Trace, now a spokesman for the International Drug Policy Consortium,
said governments that provided practical help, such as free access to clean
syringes, could achieve significant reductions in the level of HIV infections.
But he said the US was consciously trying to tie aid to "moral lines in the
sand" and would not endorse needle exchanges or heroin substitution programmes.
Britain and the rest of the EU are expected to criticise the move in Vienna
next week but a vote to withdraw support from needle exchange programmes
would send a damaging signal to the governments of the former Soviet Union.
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