|
Newsbrief:
Afghan
Crop
Report
Says
Opium
Eradication
a
Joke
8/2/02
Afghan President Hamid Karzai
may sleep a little sounder now that he is surrounded by the praetorian
guards of the US Army, but despite a lot of rhetoric, neither he nor his
benefactors in Washington and London have made any serious effort to put
a dent into Afghanistan's revived opium industry. According to a
BBC Radio 4 broadcast from reporters on the ground in Afghanistan, the
spring harvest has resulted in a bumper crop, and less than 10% of it has
been eradicated.
According to the BBC, although
the Taliban successfully banned opium production last year, the poppy has
returned with a vengeance -- and authorities are turning a blind eye.
A loudly touted eradication program was announced earlier this year, but
it was met with outbreaks of violence from peasant farmers and widespread
disdain from the warlords who profit from the trade but are vital to the
stability of the Karzai government. One member of the Afghan security
forces who worked on the eradication program told BBC: "They came here
and made themselves look busy, but it didn't look as if too many people
were taking the task seriously." He estimated that the teams had
managed to destroy two percent of the crop in his area.
Another area, one controlled
by the US-allied Northern Alliance, ignored the Taliban's ban last year
and is doing the same with Karzai's ban this year, despite the Northern
Alliance's heavy representation in the Karzai government. According
to the BBC, in the Northern Alliance's Bedakshan province, "cultivation
has barely been touched."
Look for a wave of cheap
smack to wash up against the English Channel any time now. The year's
second harvest is set for September.
-- END --
|
Issue #248, 8/2/02
Editorial: Getting from Here to There | Despite Supreme Court Ruling, No Wave of High School Drug Testing Foreseen | US Prison Population Leveling Off, Feds Drive Small Increase | Needle Exchange 2002:00:00 A Long Way Traveled, A Long Way to Go | Baltimore Killings Continue as Politicians Continue to Ignore Role of Prohibition | Stossel Special Spurs War of Letters to ABC | Newsbrief: Cooking Speed Equals Child Abuse Under New Tennessee Law | Massachusetts Governor Vetoes Decriminalization Provisions | Newsbrief: Afghan Crop Report Says Opium Eradication a Joke | Newsbrief: Leading British Comedian Says Legalize It All | Newsbrief: Alabama Rape Victim Ordered to Provide Urine Sample for Drug Test | Newsbrief: Tennessee School Board Ordered to Back Off on Zero Tolerance -- Right to Public Education at Issue | Newsbrief: Seattle Marijuana Enforcement Initiative Signatures Submitted | Web Scan: CriminalDefense.com, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Harry Levine, Ethan Nadelmann, Medical Marijuana Research, School Daily | Legislative Alerts: Rave Bill, Medical Marijuana, Higher Education Act Drug Provision | The Reformer's Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
PERMISSION to reprint or
redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby
granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and,
where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your
publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks
payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for
materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we
request notification for our records, including physical copies where
material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202)
293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank
you.
Articles of a purely
educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet
Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
|
