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Experts discuss drug supply from Afghanistan
Afghanistan is renowned as one of the world`s major producers of opium, the raw product needed to make heroin.
Afghanistan is renowned as one of the world's major producers of opium, the raw product needed to make heroin.
The country's Taliban government banned the cultivation of the opium poppy in the summer of 2000, which according to the head of research at the United Nations International Drug Control Programme cut the amount of opium produced in the country by more than 90 percent. Before the ban, Afghanistan provided 70 percent of the world's opium.
It now provides only 10 percent.
But as the position of the ruling Taliban is attacked by the US strikes, the status of the ban is one issue being brought into doubt. The ban took effect only in areas of Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban.
In areas controlled by the opposition Northern Alliance, cultivation continued and so most of the 200 tonnes of opium produced in the last year came from these areas.
As the position of the disparate Alliance strengthens with the continuation of air strikes, the future of poppy cultivation is one of the many issues that are in doubt. There's a growing drug problem in the region itself, notably in Pakistan.
But the effects of a change in leadership in Kabul may have an effect on drug use further afield.
And it's a problem that will be difficult to quantify and control.
According to Professor Geoffrey Pearson, an expert on the social effects of drugs, the events in Afghanistan now will take up to two years to have an effect on the British trade. So while military strategists in the West plan their campaigns against the Taliban, those trying to combat the scourge of drugs will be waiting to see what events in Afghanistan will mean for them.
Bureau Report
The country's Taliban government banned the cultivation of the opium poppy in the summer of 2000, which according to the head of research at the United Nations International Drug Control Programme cut the amount of opium produced in the country by more than 90 percent. Before the ban, Afghanistan provided 70 percent of the world's opium.
It now provides only 10 percent.
But as the position of the ruling Taliban is attacked by the US strikes, the status of the ban is one issue being brought into doubt. The ban took effect only in areas of Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban.
In areas controlled by the opposition Northern Alliance, cultivation continued and so most of the 200 tonnes of opium produced in the last year came from these areas.
As the position of the disparate Alliance strengthens with the continuation of air strikes, the future of poppy cultivation is one of the many issues that are in doubt. There's a growing drug problem in the region itself, notably in Pakistan.
But the effects of a change in leadership in Kabul may have an effect on drug use further afield.
And it's a problem that will be difficult to quantify and control.
According to Professor Geoffrey Pearson, an expert on the social effects of drugs, the events in Afghanistan now will take up to two years to have an effect on the British trade. So while military strategists in the West plan their campaigns against the Taliban, those trying to combat the scourge of drugs will be waiting to see what events in Afghanistan will mean for them.
Bureau Report