Background
Afghanistan's poppy market produces nearly 95 percent of the world's heroin supply. In 2007, it produced 8,200 tons of opium, up 34 percent from the 2006 record harvest. While there is significantly more gain for the farmers to yield poppies than other crops, the percentage of farmers actually generating opium production is less than 12.6 percent of the population. Poppy cultivation and heroin production is causing an increase in drug addiction among women, men, and children. There are now roughly 150,000 opium users, 50,000 heroin addicts, and 520,000 cannabis smokers in Afghanistan. Of those, 120,000 are women and 60,000 are children.
Links to the Taliban
Opium production is strongly linked to the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan. Under the Taliban, the cultivation of opium poppies was banned on the grounds that growing poppies violated the principles of Islam and was forbidden. At present, the Taliban are using profits from selling the same forbidden narcotics to buy weapons and recruit and pay unemployed children and men to commit violence against civilians and international forces in efforts to destabilize the new Afghan government.
Problems with Legalization
One proposed solution has been to legalize opium so that its production would be tightly controlled and regulated by the government. Those who support legalizing Afghanistan's narcotic production argue that it would increase security and economic development in Afghanistan, farmers would relinquish illegal drug operations and reform the legalized system, and opium cultivation would supply the global demand for opium-derived medications. Yet a significant price difference between licit and illicit opium would encourage farmers to continue to sell their products on the black market to narcotic smugglers. This would also encourage other farmers who are growing poppy alternatives to abandon the growth of alternatives and enter the poppy market. Farmers cultivating poppies make a small fraction of what the traffickers make. The big money made off of illegal opium in Afghanistan is made by a nexus of warlords, drug lords, insurgents, a growing number of corrupt government officials, and landowners. In addition, being known as a legal narco-state would detract from the many strides the country has made toward a stable and successful democracy.
An Alternative Vision for Afghanistan Farming
More resources should be dedicated to prevent poppy growth and give incentives for growing alternative crops. The Afghan government and international community need to ensure Afghan farmers receive adequate, safe, and secure water supplies as well as organized and available access to fertilizer, quality seeds, and training for planting poppy alternatives. In northern Afghanistan, where there is a higher level of security, there has been a vast decline in opium cultivation. Rather than focusing on legalization, the international community and Afghanistan should target and eliminate the smuggling of opium, establish drug rehabilitation centers in Afghanistan, create public awareness, and develop a plan for poppy alternatives.
All facts taken from Stabilizing Afghanistan: The Case for not Legalizing Poppy Cultivation, a publication by the Independent Women's Forum, available at iwf.org
