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Newsbrief:
UN
Says
Afghan
Opium
Crop
Up
Almost
Twenty-Fold
Over
2001,
Trade
Employs
a
Half-Million
People
11/1/02
In a report released October
24, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime made official what has
been obvious for months: Afghan opium production is rapidly approaching
its record-high levels of the 1990s. According to the annual Afghanistan
Opium Survey for 2002, opium output this year will exceed 3,400 tons.
In 2000, Afghanistan produced 4,600 tons of opium. Last year, after
the Taliban banned poppy growing, the country produced only 185 tons, according
to the UN estimates.
The UN office estimated that
"about half a million people have been involved in the international trade
of illicit Afghan opiates (opium, morphine, heroin) in recent years," and
that "total income for Afghan opium farmers could reach several hundred
million dollars this year." That would make opium Afghanistan's largest
industry. The CIA acknowledges the poppy's role in the local economy,
ranking Afghan exports in the following order: opium, fruits and nuts,
hand-woven carpets, wool, cotton, hides and pelts, precious and semi-precious
gems (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/af.html#Econ).
Although the interim government
of Hamid Karzai banned poppy planting and the opium trade on January 17,
it has proven unable to effectively enforce the ban. The UN urged
more cops and more alternative economic assistance. "What is needed
in the period ahead is much stronger international support in establishing
and developing law enforcement institutions, and providing Afghan farmers
with alternative, licit means of livelihood", said Antonio Maria Costa,
head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Visit http://www.odccp.org/odccp/press_release_2002-10-24_1.html
for the UN press release and links to the study.
-- END --
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Issue #261, 11/1/02
Editorial: The Space Between the Lines | Ninth Circuit Appeals Court Says Feds Can't Punish Doctors for Recommending Medical Marijuana | Learning the Hard Way in Ohio: The Trials and Tribulations of Issue One | DRCNet Book Review: "Addict in the Family," by Dr. Andrew Byrne | DRCNet Interview: Dr. Harry G. Levine | More Than 700,000 Marijuana Arrests Last Year -- Meanwhile, Violent Crime on Increase | November Coalition Roadshow Hits East Coast | DRCNet Survey/Book Giveaway Contest | Newsbrief: Rockefeller Kin Arrested in Rockefeller Law Protest | Newsbrief: Euro Parliamentarians Found Guilty, Scolded by Judge in Manchester Marijuana Civil Disobedience | Newsbrief: This Week's Corrupt Cop Story | Newsbrief: UN Says Afghan Opium Crop Up Almost Twenty-Fold Over 2001, Trade Employs a Half-Million People | Newsbrief: Liberia Prepares to Join the Drug War | Newsbrief: Chattanooga Jail Full, Faith-Based Alternative Sentencing Offered to Drug Offenders | Newsbrief: Mississippi Supreme Court Bars Telephonic Warrants, but Says It Was Okay Just This Once | Newsbrief: Seattle Initiative to De-prioritize Marijuana Enforcement Makes 2003 Ballot | Media Scan: William F. Buckley in National Review, 2002 Voter Guides and Election Resources | Calling on Students to Raise Your Voices for Repeal of the HEA Drug Provision | Action Alerts: Rave Bill, Medical Marijuana, Higher Education Act Drug Provision | The Reformer's Calendar
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