https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/407/karzai.shtml

As the Taliban insurgency, allegedly revitalized by an infusion of drug trafficking profits, shot rockets into the Afghan capital Wednesday and killed dozens in a week of bloody violence, Afghan President Hamid Karzai Wednesday for the first time directly linked his country's booming drug trade to the insurgency. The country could fall back into the hands of terrorists if the Afghan opium crop is not stamped out, Karzai warned.

victims of opium eradication (photo taken by DRCNet's Phil Smith in Afghanistan)

Afghanistan produces almost 90% of the world's opium and its derivative, heroin, according to the United Nations, and the crop is responsible for providing a livelihood for hundreds of thousands of Afghan families. It is also responsible for somewhere between 40% and 60% of the national Gross Domestic Product, depending on whom you ask, and is protected not only by pro-Taliban drug traffickers but also by warlords and provincial governors affiliated with the Karzai government.

The United States, the UN, and the Western powers are determined to stamp out the opium crop, despite the serious disruptions that could have on the Afghan economy and polity. The West and the government of President Karzai have recently rejected a proposal by a European think tank, the Senlis Council, to license some portion of the crop and divert it into the legitimate international medicinal market.

Speaking at a Wednesday press conference with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Karzai hopped firmly on the eradication bandwagon. "We will have terrorism affecting us for quite some time," he warned, adding that there was "cooperation between the drug trade and terrorism. The question of drugs is one that will determine Afghanistan's future. If we fail to fight drugs, we will eventually fail as a state and we will fall back into the hands of terrorism."

Of course, if Karzai and the West continue down their single-minded path of destroying the opium economy, they will sow instability in Afghanistan while ensuring that black market drug profits continue to flow to the very people they wish to defeat.

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