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Afghanistan Overrun by Meth

The Hammer

[REDACTED]
Premium Member
Afghanistan is being overrun by crystal meth as US begins withdrawal

Afghanistan is being overrun with Methamphetamine, thanks to the discovery of the local Om weed. It is fueling both despair and the local Taliban and drug gangs.

"Afghanistan's drug trade generates an estimated $35 million a month for the Taliban and drug gangs. Meanwhile, a narcotics official estimates that one in 10 Afghans are involved in the drug trade, while a 2018 report suggested that a similar number were addicted to drugs. As for the US, which poured $8.6 billion into anti-narcotics efforts from 2002 to 2017, there are no plans to fund those efforts going forward."
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
As for the US, which poured $8.6 billion into anti-narcotics efforts from 2002 to 2017, there are no plans to fund those efforts going forward."
About time we quit funding these abject failures that only work to ruin the lives of those found guilty of minor drug possession charges.
And I'm not really surprised. Afghanistan and drugs do have a long history together.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
I see the War on Drugs has had similar effects in Afghanistan as it has had in the US.
This goes back even before the War on Drugs.
Opium production in Afghanistan - Wikipedia
Afghanistan has been the world's leading illicit drug producer since 2001.[1] Afghanistan's opium poppy harvest produces more than 90% of illicit heroin globally, and more than 95% of the European supply.[2][3] More land is used for opium in Afghanistan than is used for coca cultivation in Latin America. In 2007, 93% of the non-pharmaceutical-grade opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan.[4] This amounts to an export value of about US$4 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords, and drug traffickers.[5] In the seven years (1994–2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers' share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families.[6] As of 2017, opium production provides about 400,000 jobs in Afghanistan, more than the Afghan National Security Forces.[7] The opium trade spiked in 2006 after the Taliban lost control of local warlords. In addition to opium, Afghanistan is also the world's leading producer of hashish.[8][9]
...
Afghanistan first began producing opium in significant quantities in the mid-1950s, to supply its neighbor Iran after poppy cultivation was banned there. Afghanistan and Pakistan increased production and became major suppliers of opiates to Western Europe and North America in the mid-1970s, when political instability combined with a prolonged drought disrupted supplies from the Golden Triangle.[10]

Soviet period (1979–1989)
After a Soviet-backed left-wing government in Afghanistan failed to gain popular support, the Russians decided to invade. A number of resistance leaders concentrated on increasing opium production in their regions to finance their operations, regardless of its haram Islamic status, in particular Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Mullah Nasim Akhundzada, and Ismat Muslim. The production was doubled to 575 metric tons between 1982 and 1983.[11][12] (At this time the United States was pursuing an "arms-length" supporting strategy of the Afghan freedom-fighters or Mujahideen, the main purpose of which was to cripple the Soviet Union slowly into withdrawal through attrition rather than effect a quick and decisive overthrow.) Hekmatyar, the leading recipient of aid from the CIA and Pakistan, developed at least six heroin refineries in Koh-i-Sultan in southwestern Pakistan, while other warlords were content to sell raw opium. Nasim Akhundzada, who controlled the traditional poppy growing region of northern Helmand, issued quotas for opium production, which he was even rumoured to enforce with torture and extreme violence. To maximise control of trafficking, Nasim maintained an office in Zahidan, Iran.[13]

It was alleged by the Soviets that US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents were helping smuggle opium out of Afghanistan, either into the West, in order to raise money for the Afghan resistance, or into the Soviet Union, in order to weaken it through drug addiction. According to Alfred McCoy, the CIA supported various Afghan drug lords, for instance Gulbuddin Hekmatyar[14] and others such as Haji Ayub Afridi.

Another factor was the eradication effort inside Pakistan (whose Inter-Services Intelligence were coincidentally supporters of the Mujahideen). The Pakistani government, US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other groups were involved in attempting to eliminate poppy cultivation from certain areas of the North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) bordering Afghanistan. The opium industry shifted from Pakistan into Afghanistan during the 1980s.[15][16]
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
Different drugs. Afghanistan was the center of opiate production, mostly heroine - Meth production would be a relatively new thing.
Meth production isn't hard or new. And when you're already a major player in the world drug scene, ramping up production of a cheap drug that can be made without any special tools or knowledge is not going to be difficult. And when you have the money and resources to add another drug to production and have better equipment than the minimum needed, it's even less difficult.
Or, another way to think of this, many Mexican cartels abruptly halted cannabis production because legal cannabis in the US drove the price per bushel down so low that many crops were not even harvested, but rather destroyed to clear way to grow poppy plants and switch to opiates. That wasn't an issue for them; it's just business.
 

pearl

Well-Known Member
Before 9,11 and the declared war, wasn't the Taliban opposed to the growing of Cannabis and the like?, but turned to it to finance their war.
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
Meth production isn't hard or new. And when you're already a major player in the world drug scene, ramping up production of a cheap drug that can be made without any special tools or knowledge is not going to be difficult. And when you have the money and resources to add another drug to production and have better equipment than the minimum needed, it's even less difficult.
Or, another way to think of this, many Mexican cartels abruptly halted cannabis production because legal cannabis in the US drove the price per bushel down so low that many crops were not even harvested, but rather destroyed to clear way to grow poppy plants and switch to opiates. That wasn't an issue for them; it's just business.
You are assuming that the same corporate structures that govern the American drug trade also dominate agricultural production in Afghanistan, without any indication or evidence that this is in fact the case. Afghan peasants have been growing opiates for decades, in some cases centuries.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
You are assuming that the same corporate structures that govern the American drug trade also dominate agricultural production in Afghanistan, without any indication or evidence that this is in fact the case.
What? You're going to have to demonstrate it, because it's just as easy for me to say you seem to know little about drugs, drug production, and mobs if you think meth and opium being different drugs somehow makes the continuing drug empire going two separate things, with a change in operations not being something that is easily adjusted to when you're already huge in the game.
And to further complicate things, if it's not made by massive scale labs run by drug warlords who switch over, it's some random person with no chemistry background or equipment doing it in a closet.
This "different drugs" argument simply doesn't hold up. Those making it and dealing it often times aren't personally use it, and have no attachment to that drug. They are in a business, the markets shift, they give consumers what they want.
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
What? You're going to have to demonstrate it, because it's just as easy for me to say you seem to know little about drugs, drug production, and mobs if you think meth and opium being different drugs somehow makes the continuing drug empire going two separate things, with a change in operations not being something that is easily adjusted to when you're already huge in the game.
And to further complicate things, if it's not made by massive scale labs run by drug warlords who switch over, it's some random person with no chemistry background or equipment doing it in a closet.
This "different drugs" argument simply doesn't hold up. Those making it and dealing it often times aren't personally use it, and have no attachment to that drug. They are in a business, the markets shift, they give consumers what they want.
Hey, I'm not the boss of you. If you want to make claims willy nilly without any sort of factual support, be my guest.

I was wondering where you got all this from, but if you don't know yourself, then I won't press you for sources any further.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
Hey, I'm not the boss of you. If you want to make claims willy nilly without any sort of factual support, be my guest.

I was wondering where you got all this from, but if you don't know yourself, then I won't press you for sources any further.
Don't know myself? What in the hell does that have to do with anything?
Go research mobs and cartels and start asking questions instead of beginning with boneheaded assumptions. I don't know the sources? It's called a history book. I'm making assumptions they function like American corporations? Based on what? Your assertion opiates and meth are different drugs and belief this is supposed to somehow make a difference to drug warlords who power is maintained through the money and power their drug money brings?
As for the rest, I can't really link here how easy meth is to make.
And I also gave an example of Mexican drug cartels suddenly and abruptly scaling back on cannabis or dropping it entirely in favor of poppy plants due to cannabis not being profitable for them and to change gears to feed America's growing hunger for opiates.
Amd you want to act like I don't know what I'm talking because "meth and opiates are different drugs.":rolleyes:
 
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