The Afghan opium war, or how to control 92% of the global heroin market:
dawn.com
It's interesting how policy changes over a period of time. Some folks may remember that the Taliban was installed as the result of one of the usual US backed coups of the black op variety. Some folks may even remember that before the War on Terror (that increases the flow of terrorists), there was a War on Drugs (that increased the flow of drugs).
I'm not a big fan of PDF files, but this 2005 UN report of Afghanistan opium production is worth the time it takes to load. Scroll down the first few pages for a chart on Afghanistan's opium production for the past 10 years. That chart makes for an interesting look into US foreign policy as far as the Taliban is concerned.
unodc.org
As long as the opium yields continued to improve, the Taliban were the good guys. A funny thing happened during the 2000-2001 growing seasons though. The Taliban got religion. They decided strict interpretation of Islam forbid the use and cultivation of opium and heroin. In short order, the Taliban wiped out virtually all of Afghanistan's opium crops.
This makes the Taliban totally unique in the history of the world's war on drugs, as being the only government ever to prove incorruptable enough to actually win the war. The result was a global heroin crisis, although the average person probably wouldn't view it as such.
So, how much is 1.2 million pounds of heroin worth?
Well, it's usually cut 20 to 1 for street purity, so that translates to 24 million pounds. There are 16 ounces to a pound, so that comes to 384 million ounces. There are 28 grams to an ounce, so that comes to 10.7 billion grams. At $300 per gram, that would come to 3.2 trillion dollars. Yes, I said trillion. Do the math, this is what you get: $3,225,600,000,000.
Taking a quick trip down memory lane, it's worth reviewing this September 2001 BBC article: news.bbc.co.uk
The "evil" Taliban placed but a single condition on handing Osama bin Laden over to US authorities: That the US provide the Taliban with the evidence proving OBL's guilt.
So, here we are 5 years later. We still haven't caught Osama, but Afghanistan is pumping out enough heroin to kill 100,000 people each and every year. Do you feel safer?
Don't take any shampoo with you on vacation. You might be a terrorist. Don't expect to find any when you get home, junkies have cleaned out your house. |
