Afghanistan opium at record high

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Maybe providing them alternative means of making a living would help?

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime report says the amount of opium produced there has doubled in the last two years.

It says Helmand province is now the biggest single drug-producing area in the world, surpassing whole countries such as Colombia.

"No other country beside China in the 19th Century ever had such a large amount of land dedicated to illegal activities.

"The province of Helmand in the south has cultivated more opium than in the rest of Afghanistan. It has become the largest single entity in terms of both production and cultivation," he said.

The north is mostly drug-free, but the south can choose between starving and alienating the Taliban or growing Opium. The common people need to be offered an alternative, rather than just trying to fight a guerilla war there.

 

[martinez]

Your post reads like you think the Taliban are the cause of the Opium? I don't get it.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: martinez
Your post reads like you think the Taliban are the cause of the Opium? I don't get it.

The population there can choose between making a money on Opium or joining the Taliban if they want to make a living. And at the moment the Taliban isn't discouraging the growth of Opium either, like they did when they were in power. Now they can use the money it generates.

If the people would have other options available with which they would be able to support their family without growing poppies or becoming a suicide bomber/Taliban soldier the Taliban would not have as strong a basis to act from. Without support from at least part of the local community it is much harder for foreign Taliban soldiers to hide in a region.

 

[Lemon law]

We are talking democracy and the free enterprise system here. And besides, Iraq is more important. All that matter is that the war lords and thugs we now support keep the Taliban out.

 

[jpeyton]

Buy marijuana and you're supporting the terrorists!

 

[Nebor]

I think it would be spurious to assume any kind of causation between our invasion and this spike in opium growth.

 

[GrGr]

Originally posted by: Nebor
I think it would be spurious to assume any kind of causation between our invasion and this spike in opium growth.

Nonsense. The US supports the biggest druglord in Afghanistan. Dostum is a poster boy for US style democracy and success in Afghanistan.

 

[Lemon law]

Originally posted by: Nebor
I think it would be spurious to assume any kind of causation between our invasion and this spike in opium growth.

Exactly Nebor---your thinking is clearly defective because the causal link is obvious.

Nebor, please let more intelligent people do the thinking because its quite clear you were standing behind the door when brains were handed out.

What the US invasion of both Iraq and Afghanistan has caused is a complete breakdown in law and order and now home grown thugs make money in illegal and antisocial ways.