A Need for Cohesive Counter-Narcotics Policy
[11] Id. at 31 (“Alteration to poppy types may yet have a powerful impact in an opium poppy industry as evidenced by the top1 variety of poppy (also known as .Norman.) successfully developed in Australia to produce a poppy rich in thebaine . and low in morphine . now extensively cultivated in Tasmania.”)
[12] See FN 10 Above
[13] This can be inferred from the poppy plant’s cultivation in Afghanistan, France, Spain, India, Turkey, China, Australia, Hungary, Egypt, Mexico, Columbia, just to name a few.
[14] Id. at 32 (“… agricultural and topological factors in many areas (including susceptibility to drought,for example) diminish the possibilities for the cultivation of wheat or other crops.”)
[15] U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2010 Afghan Opium Survey, 16 (United Nations Publications 2010) “… [h]arvesting technique used in Afghanistan consists of lancing the fully developed but still green opium capsules. Liquid plant juice (opium latex) oozes out of the cuts, dries on the capsules to turn into opium gum, and is scratchd off the other day.”)
[16] The Senlis Council, FEASIBILITY STUDY ON OPIUM LICENSING IN AFGHANISTAN FOR THE PRODUCTION OF MORPHINE AND OTHER ESSENTIAL MEDICINES 249 (2005) (“opium gum has a very long shelf life and can gain value over time.”)
[17] U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2010 World Drug Report, 12 FN 3 (United Nations Publications 2010) (“Morphine represents an intermediate step in the processing of opium to heroin, and is rarely consumed as a drug in its own right.”)
[18] The Senlis Council, FEASIBILITY STUDY ON OPIUM LICENSING IN AFGHANISTAN FOR THE PRODUCTION OF MORPHINE AND OTHER ESSENTIAL MEDICINES 250 (2005) (“The process of making heroin out of morphine involves boiling morphine and a common chemical, acetic anhydride, for some hours, along with sodium carbonate, activated charcoal, chloroform, ethyl alcohol, ether, and acetone.”)
[19] U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], Strategic Programme Framework for Afghanistan 2006-2010 38 (United Nations 2006) (“Recent surveys and analysis estimate that more than 70% of the Afghan opium production is converted into heroin within Afghanistan. At current production levels, this requires the availability of an estimated 1,000 tons of acetic anhydride (AA) and about 9,000 of other chemicals and precursors in the country every year. Afghanistan has neither local production nor local licit use for AA, and a detailed assessment on the other chemicals used for clandestine heroin production has been started to ascertain their types, local availability/use and sources.”)
[20] U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2010 World Drug Report, 20 (United Nations Publications 2010) (“ … heroin remains the most problematic opiate internationally.”); See Also, Id. at 37 (“More users die each year from problems related to heroin use, and more are forced to seek treatment for addiction, than for any other illicit drug.”)
[21] Id. at 30 (“Their use can lead to severe dependence and is often associated with IDU-related HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B and C, as well as high mortality rates.”)
[22] Id. at 30 (“The mortality rate for dependent heroin users is between 6 and 20 times that expected for those in the general population of the same age and gender, as the difference between a ‘recreational dose’ and a ‘fatal’ one is small, and variations in street drug purity can result in overdoses. Thus, in most countries, opiates consumption constitutes the main cause of drug-related deaths.”)
[23] STRATFOR Global Intelligence, Afghanistan: Global Trade for Illicit Opiates 3 (March 29, 2010)
[24] The Chinese Opium Trade involved the trade of opium only. And not the trade of morphine and/or heroin.
[25] U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2010 World Drug Report, 46 (United Nations Publications 2010)
[26] U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2008 World Drug Report, 173 (United Nations Publications 2008)
[27] Id. at 177 (“Production was reported from 20 Chinese provinces. More than 40% of the total production took place in the province of Szechwan, followed by Yunnan. Yunnan province is located in southern China, bordering Myanmar, and Szechwan province is located north of Yunnan. In other words, more than half of China’s opium production took place slightly to the north of the geographical area which would later be known as Golden Triangle (Myanmar, Laos and Thailand), one of the main sources of illicit opium in the 20th century.”)
[28] Id. at 201 (citing FN 175-176) (This would continue until 1974, at which point Turkey would allow the licensed cultivation of poppy using the poppy straw method.); Id. at 203 (citing FN 186) (And “[i]nitial progress made in curbing the global heroin problem [would stall] as the void created by the strengthening of controls in Turkey … [would] soon [be] filled by rising opium production in … the Golden Triangle.”)
[29] Id. at 200 (Myanmar alone would be the largest illicit opiate supplier.); See Also, Drug Policy Alliance, South East Asia: The Golden Triangle, (2011) http://www.drugpolicy.org/global/drugpolicyby/asia/seasia/ ; See Also, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, Pierre-Arunaud Chouvy, Afghanistan’s Opium Production in Perspective (2006).
[30] U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2008 World Drug Report, 203United Nations Publications 2008) (“After 1979, there was a slow shift of opium production to neighboring Pakistan and eventually to Afghanistan.”)
[31] See, U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2008 World Drug Report (United Nations Publications 2008); See Also, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, Pierre-Arunaud Chouvy, Afghanistan’s Opium Production in Perspective (2006).
[32] See, The Senlis Council, Impact Assessment of Crop Eradication in Afghanistan and Lessons Learned from Latin America and South East Asia, 85-110 (MF Publishing Ltd January 2006)
[33] Id.
[34] Golden Crescent: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
[35] U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2007 World Drug Report 216 (United Nations Publications 2007)
[36] U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2010 World Drug Report 42 (United Nations Publications 2010) “Expressed as a proportion of the global illicit opium production, Afghanistan’s share rose from around 20% in 1980 to 70% in 2000, and to more than 90% since 2006. This is directly related to decreased output in the ‘Golden Triangle’, encompassing Thailand, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Myanmar, the world’s leading opium producer in the 1970s and 1980s. Between 2003 and 2008, opium production in Myanmar fell by 59%, from 810 to 410 mt. Production in the neighboring Lao People’s Democratic Republic also declined dramatically, from more than 120 mt in the 1990s to around to 10 mt in recent years. Thailand’s production is negligible; it has not reported any significant cultivation since 2003.”); See Also, Id. at 41 (“Afghan opium is now the only known source of heroin consumed in Europe and the Russian Federation,” the two largest heroin markets within the illicit opiate market.”)
[37] Id. at 138
[38] Id.
[39] Id. at 12
[40] See, U.N. Economic and Social Council, Report on the fifty-second session, E/2009/28 E/CN.7/2009/12, Mar. 14, 2008 & Mar. 11-20, 2009 Political Declaration and Plan of Action on International Cooperation towards an Integrated and Balanced Strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem (2009)
[41] U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2010 World Drug Report 32 (United Nations Publications 2010) (“Increases in Afghanistan more than offset remarkable declines in South-East Asia during that period. There were encouraging declines in the last three years, but Afghan production was still more than 150% higher in 2009 than in 1998. With strong increases after 2005, production seems to have well exceeded world demand and led to the creation of large stockpiles, but it is clear that the global opiate market has not been eliminated, or significantly reduced, since 1998.”)
Alternatively, you could take secret drugs lords like the CIA out of the picture by legalising and regulating the drugs trade. But why go for simple, logical solutions when you can undermine the world though an interconnected network of drugs, oil and weapons trade?
Not that simple. To license Afghanistan for the licit manufacture of opiate pharmaceuticals, or at least the licit cultivation of poppy for other countries to manufacture those pharmaceuticals, two things would need to be done. As of now the cultivation, manufacture, export, and import of licit opiates is regulated by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). Afghanistan would first have to show that there is a demand for licit opiates, and second, that it could supply that demand without creating an oversupply of licit opiates. The point being, the INCB wants to make sure the medical field is supplied, but does not want an oversupply to leak into the illicit field.
Today, the INCB does not find a need for licit opiates, and instead finds an oversupply of licit opiates. Furthermore, the leading importer of licit opiates, the U.S., is contractually obligated to purchase its opiates from seven specific countries. As of now, the main argument involves having Afghanistan gain entrance into that contractual agreement with the U.S., which will not happen. And the counter-argument for that, which is why it will not happen, is that Afghanistan lacks the security for such a business venture.
Although I am stating the facts for you, based on a licit business argument, my next article will focus on Afghanistan being licensed. What should be noted, which is the main point of the above article, is that even if Afghanistan were to be licensed, that temporary fix would not have any long-term negative effect on the actual heroin market as a whole.
Thank you for your comment.
Amen to that Neo.
For further clarification, the way the system works, the United Nations, under the INCB, would have to approve this business venture. Until the correct argument is made, Afghanistan will continue to provide for the illicit market, not the licit market. And, as stated above, even if Afghanistan were to provide for the licit market, do not underestimate the potential of the heroin market to adapt to such tactics. It will, and has. Its ability to maintain profitability keeps it afloat, and such a quick fix will only affect Afghanistan, not the global market as a hole.
*whole.
Seems the sure way to make opium less profitable as a commodity have an oversupply of it. I know corn is not profitable to grow without government subsidies. There would need to be aggressive media on the dangers of heroin and super easy access to treatment along with this strategy. Heroin is not going to be a mainstream drug no matter what, the stories of it’s destructiveness are pretty much out there. A bigger problem by far is prescription opiates.
Treating drug addiction as a social problem rather than a criminal one would effectively destroy the trade.
The U.S. could start by legalizing marijuana. And medicinal marijuana would be a good substitute in many/most cases for prescription opiates. And we could go from there.
Legalizing marijuana I am likely to favor however, there would be massive economic consequences. Mexico’s main oil field is slowing down and cheap corn via NAFTA put many Mexican farmer out of work. The money from pot is a significant part of the economy there. Plus all the small time traffickers and dealers would be out of luck and keep in mind these lucrative jobs keep opening up for new people as law in enforcement takes folks out of the work force.
I fear what commercialization would do to. Industries are already great at getting people to eat loads of sugar, fat and salt and drinking alcohol. Do we really want businesses to be trying to ever increase their sales of pot while denying the real and common side effects of weight gain from increased appetite and lack of motivation? Because I can see that happening.
I don’t really see any down side to legalizing marijuana. Legalizing it in Mexico, as former President Fox just suggested doing, would help eliminate a violent black market and open up legitimate jobs. Weight gain is a dietary and exercise problem, not caused by smoking pot. and I think it’s an absolute myth that smoking pot causes people to lose their motivation. A lot of lazy people smoke pot. Pot doesn’t make them that way.
Hi Liana
This is wonderfully written.
May I suggest you research the false war on drugs when it was decided
that the CIA would let this be taken over by the new agency called DEA?
Many agents were called in 24 hours to halt their operations.
Then research the so-called drug lord Khun Sa, who was the Golden Triangle
connection. Living larger than life in the Shan mountains with three goverment’s protection. Burma Thailand and USA.
When The DEA put the heat on Burma to start the eradication of the poppy.
They did so reluctantly. There was a promise of assistance, which never came
good agents being sent back to the states, and keeping the Burmese at bay
by carrot and stick threats. While most poppy was being eradicated in accord with the USA wishes, Along comes 9-11 the mother of all wishes to come true.
Now America could get the prices up to snuff and that road from the fields to the cities back to higher yield and profits. With gangsters and drug dealers
as elected officials, and the brother of Afghan president, appointed by the USA
as a bank thief, the new world order of drugs came into play.
While American men and woman died in Afghanistan protecting what?
The career of lawyers who keep the wheel greased in drug cases in courts
through out the USA, and the public companies were building more prisons
to feed small town America’s economy, from the kids dealing on the streets
of inner cities. We were told that the poor Muslim people did not know how
to farm food? Look this is the industrial jobs complex.
First profits are from sales., then there is the Rockerfeller, lead, Methadone
program for addicts, then the 25 years to life sentences for courts and prisons
and the broken families left behind. Prisons get built. farmers sell meat
guards are hired, and you keep the wheel going. Lawyers and courts
make the wheel go round too So there will never be an honest discussion
nor termination of drug in or out of America. By us being in Afghaniland
we have allowed the poppy to yields of 4000% Its a business on one side
its the defense contract, on the other its purported to be assisting in freedom
for the poor people of Afghanistan
Peter Dale Scott’s “American War Machine” is an excellent resource on these matters.
It’s difficult to exercise any control on the narcotics trade when those doing the controlling wear both the “black” and “white” hats. They’ve set this up like they’ve set up US elections: no matter which way you vote, we’ll be led to the same sorry place: the paths look different but the Destination is the same. Speaking of, someone at FPJ may want to take a gander at the Director of National Intelligence’s Destination 2025 papers. It’s the roadmap for our future: global governance.