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Afghan Opium Production 40 Times Higher Since US-NATO Invasion
Published 31 August 2016
About 90 percent of the world's illegal opium is estimated to come from Afghanistan.
Since the U.S.-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the production of opium in the country has increased by 40 times according to Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service, or FSKN, fueling organized crime and widespread death.
The head of the FSKN, Viktor Ivanov, explained the staggering trend at a March U.N. conference on drugs in Afghanistan. Opium growth in Afghanistan increased 18 percent from 131, 000 hectares to 154, 000, according to Ivanov’s estimates.
“Afghan heroin has killed more than one million people worldwide since the ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ began and over a trillion dollars has been invested into transnational organized crime from drug sales,” said Ivanov according to Counter Current News.
Prior to the invasion of Afghanistan, opium production was banned by the Taliban, although it still managed to exist. The U.S. and its allies have been accused of encouraging and aiding in the opium production and the ongoing drug trafficking within the region. Ivanov claimed that only around 1 percent of the total opium yield in Afghanistan was destroyed and that the “international community has failed to curb heroin production in Afghanistan since the start of NATO’s operation.”
Afghanistan is thought to produce more than 90 percent of the world’s supply of opium, which is then used to make heroin and other dangerous drugs that are shipped in large quantities all over the world. Opium production provides many Afghan communities with an income, in an otherwise impoverished and war-torn country. The opium trade contributed around $US2.3 billion or around 19 percent of Afghanistan's GDP in 2009 according to the U.N.
Around 43 percent of drugs produced in Afghanistan are moved through Pakistan, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The Islamic State Group is reported to have recently taken over opium production and trafficking. In November, the extremist group was estimated to be earning over $US 1 billion from the opium trade. Profits also go to international drug cartels and money-laundering banks.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/ne...her-Since-US-NATO-Invasion-20160831-0003.html
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I find it hard to believe that we could allow this potential source of income for the Taliban or ISIS, for any reason.
It is difficult for me not to put on my tin-foil, and reason that the US government must have control of this income somehow, for them not to scorch every opium field across the nation of Afghanistan.
I understand that this could turn the populace against US agendas, but when faced with the possibility that billions of dollars are going to fund the Taliban or ISIS, this would seem to demand that we bite that bullet.
Discuss...........
Published 31 August 2016
About 90 percent of the world's illegal opium is estimated to come from Afghanistan.
Since the U.S.-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the production of opium in the country has increased by 40 times according to Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service, or FSKN, fueling organized crime and widespread death.
The head of the FSKN, Viktor Ivanov, explained the staggering trend at a March U.N. conference on drugs in Afghanistan. Opium growth in Afghanistan increased 18 percent from 131, 000 hectares to 154, 000, according to Ivanov’s estimates.
“Afghan heroin has killed more than one million people worldwide since the ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ began and over a trillion dollars has been invested into transnational organized crime from drug sales,” said Ivanov according to Counter Current News.
Prior to the invasion of Afghanistan, opium production was banned by the Taliban, although it still managed to exist. The U.S. and its allies have been accused of encouraging and aiding in the opium production and the ongoing drug trafficking within the region. Ivanov claimed that only around 1 percent of the total opium yield in Afghanistan was destroyed and that the “international community has failed to curb heroin production in Afghanistan since the start of NATO’s operation.”
Afghanistan is thought to produce more than 90 percent of the world’s supply of opium, which is then used to make heroin and other dangerous drugs that are shipped in large quantities all over the world. Opium production provides many Afghan communities with an income, in an otherwise impoverished and war-torn country. The opium trade contributed around $US2.3 billion or around 19 percent of Afghanistan's GDP in 2009 according to the U.N.
Around 43 percent of drugs produced in Afghanistan are moved through Pakistan, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The Islamic State Group is reported to have recently taken over opium production and trafficking. In November, the extremist group was estimated to be earning over $US 1 billion from the opium trade. Profits also go to international drug cartels and money-laundering banks.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/ne...her-Since-US-NATO-Invasion-20160831-0003.html
_________________________________________________________________________________
I find it hard to believe that we could allow this potential source of income for the Taliban or ISIS, for any reason.
It is difficult for me not to put on my tin-foil, and reason that the US government must have control of this income somehow, for them not to scorch every opium field across the nation of Afghanistan.
I understand that this could turn the populace against US agendas, but when faced with the possibility that billions of dollars are going to fund the Taliban or ISIS, this would seem to demand that we bite that bullet.
Discuss...........