The newest war on drugs

There is a new round in the war on drugs, and it is not being led by the US government. It is being enforced by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the source of most of the opium trade in the world. The Taliban took over Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, the 70^th anniversary of Nixon’s decree ending the gold standard in 1971. In early April of 2022 the new government issued a ban on growing poppies. Now it is destroying poppy crops.

It appears that the Taliban have again cut off a big source of funding for the CIA. The US invasion of Afghanistan was more about securing money from the opium trade than finding Osama bin whoever. They were concerned because the Taliban had banned the opium trade, and this was causing a huge gap in the CIA budget.

https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/290157-afghan-taliban-launch-campaign-to-eradicate-poppy-crop

During their first time in power in the late 1990s, the Taliban also banned poppy cultivation and with a fierce campaign of destroying croplands nearly eradicated production within two years, according to the United Nations.

However, after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001, many farmers returned to growing poppies.

Over the next nearly 20 years, Washington spent more than $8 billion trying to eradicate Afghan poppy production. Instead, it only steadily increased: In 2002, around 75,000 hectares were planted with poppies, producing some 3,400 tons of opium. Last year, production was double that.

No doubt the $8 billion that was spent “trying to eradicate Afghan poppy production” was actually spent on protecting the opium trade.

During the years-long Taliban insurgency, the movement reportedly made millions of dollars taxing farmers and middlemen to move their drugs outside Afghanistan. Senior officials of the U.S.-backed government also reportedly made millions on the flourishing drug trade.

It is difficult to hide a poppy field in Afghanistan. If the US government had wanted to destroy those crops and save Americans from drug addiction, it could easily have done so. This is evident in that the Taliban seem to have no difficulty eradicating opium. But instead, under US protection, funded by the US taxpayers, the drug production “spiraled over the past 20 years.”

Afghanistan is the world's biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia. Production spiraled over the past 20 years despite billions of dollars spent by the U.S. trying to stop poppy cultivation.

In fact, from 2020 to 2021 heroin production increased from 590 tons to 650 tons.

But Afghanistan's production has steadily risen, reaching new heights every year in recent years. In 2021, 177,000 hectares (438,000 acres) were planted with poppies, yielding enough opium to produce up to 650 tons of heroin, according to estimates by the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime. That was an increase from up to 590 tons of heroin in 2020.

Cutting off the supply of opium will cut off a large portion of the CIA’s budget and has the potential to bring a recession to the West (as it did 20 years ago).

As early as 2010 Russia criticized the US for refusing to eliminate the opium production.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-russia-opium-idUSTRE62R0QH20100328

KABUL (Reuters) - Russia accused the United States on Sunday of conniving with Afghanistan’s drug producers by refusing to destroy opium crops, the second time in a week Moscow has taken a swipe at the West over drug policy….

Poppy eradication has largely been seen as a failure by the international community. According to the United Nations, less than 4 percent of poppy planted in Afghanistan over the last two years was eradicated, and at a great human and economic cost.

Foreign troops in Afghanistan have never carried out poppy eradication themselves, but they have provided logistical support and security for Afghan eradication programs, and programs run by Western security contracting firms.

The United States said last year it would phase out its eradication efforts and would concentrate instead on interdiction of the drug, going after traffickers heroin factories.

Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world’s opium. The US spent $8 billion and achieved a reduction of 4 percent. Then they dropped all pretense and decided instead to focus on interdiction of the opium on the supply lines. Of course, the main supply line went through the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, shipped there by the CIA using military planes. The only supply lines that were interdicted were “unauthorized” shipments marketed by the CIA’s competitors.