Very scary article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8319249.stm

Quote :

"UN findings say an opium market worth $65bn (£39bn) funds global terrorism, caters to 15 million addicts, and kills 100,000 people every year. The UN says corruption, lawlessness and uncontrolled borders result in only 2% of Afghan opiates being seized locally. The UN says more Russians die annually from Afghan drugs than Soviet soldiers were killed during its Afghan conflict. Afghanistan produces 92% of the world's opium, with the equivalent of 3,500 tonnes leaving the country each year."

Quote :

"It says more people die globally from Afghan opium than any other drug but just a tiny percentage of what is produced is seized on route."

Quote :

"One significant reason is that "lawlessness, corruption and uncontrolled borders" are resulting in very limited seizures by the Afghan authorities. Just 2% of drugs are seized per annum, as compared with Colombia's 36% annually, the report says. Seizure rates are thought to decline as the drugs move closer to more lucrative key markets, with the value of the drugs doubling with every border crossed. For example, Iran intercepts about 20% of the opium entering its territory and Pakistan 17% - but Russia and some European countries are seizing less than 5%. One gram of heroin worth $3 in Kabul is worth up to $100 on the streets of London, Milan or Moscow, it is estimated."

Quote :

"An estimated $160m of drug money per year is now available to support terrorists activities, the report suggests. "The Taliban's direct involvement in the opium trade allows them to fund a war machine that is becoming technologically more complex and increasingly widespread," said Antonia Maria Costa. "Some profiteers in the heroin trade wear suits and white collars, others wear black turbans.""

Quote :

"For example, in Nato member states more than 10,000 people die from Afghan heroin each year - a figure five times higher than the total number of Nato troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001. In Russia, the country worst-affected by the drug, the annual 30,000 death toll is higher than the total Soviet death toll during the USSR's Afghanistan campaign of 1979-1989, the UN says."

Quote :

"In addition, the UNODC says there is a pressing need to locate and destroy massive stockpiles of Afghan opium - an estimated 12,000 tons is being hoarded, it believes. With current supplies far outweighing demand, fears are high that Afghanistan's opium has the potential to spread terrorism and the drugs trade for many more years to come."

And here is an article exclusively about Russia and Afghan Heroin:

Russian anger over Afghan drugs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8319585.stm

Quote :

"President Medvedev calls Afghan heroin a threat to Russia's national security. And it has led to serious tensions between Moscow and Washington - Russia accuses Nato, and more often the US, of failing to make enough effort to tackle heroin production in Afghanistan."

Quote :

"The result, he said, is an estimated 2.5 million heroin addicts in Russia alone, creating what he called a lost generation of young people."

Quote :

"The Russian medical authorities say overdoses are now killing more than 80 people every day. Precise figures are not available, but it is estimated that there are somewhere between 1.5 million and six million heroin addicts in Russia."

Quote :

"Many European specialists consider Russian approaches to preventing and treating heroin addiction as confused. Methadone substitution therapy, for example, is illegal in Russia, a country where alternative, scientifically unproven treatments are often preferred."

10/21/2009 9:51:26 PM

Sounds like we should legalize opium, or at the very least legalize its various substitutes. That would bankrupt the terrorists in no time, as I seriously doubt they can compete against Walmart.

10/21/2009 11:44:20 PM

yeah, but Wal-mart would be much harder to control than Afghan terrorists.

10/21/2009 11:46:58 PM

People have floated the idea of creating greater pathways for Afghan farmers to reach legal opium markets. That way, you can control production in a regulated environment without resorting to eradication programs. However, I've also heard the counter argument that the current legal opium trade is already on the brink of oversaturation, and that the introduction of yet another large supplier would undermine similar programs in nations like Turkey and Thailand by driving down prices to levels where black market prices become attractive again. Another argument says that while there are theoretically emerging markets in the developing world for medical morphine, the health infrastructure in those nations would be unable to absorb the newly produced product.

Does anyone have any data on this one way or the other?

10/22/2009 11:27:31 AM

Quote :

"legal opium trade"

does not compute

i will have to look up where this legal opium trade takes places. afaik, opium is illegal everywhere.

10/22/2009 6:10:06 PM

I've smoked opium...its nice...the problem is that its a precursor for drugs like heroin

I read a story a few days ago that said that heroin overdoses had tripled in Charlotte NC from 2008 to 2009. Fuck legalizing opium. Lets just find their biggest fields and napalm the bitches

ps: bitches = fields

[Edited on October 22, 2009 at 6:50 PM. Reason : and no, i didnt have that red crayon shit...i had some black crystal]

10/22/2009 6:42:26 PM

if you reduce the supply of opium and heroin, the supply of synthetics like oxycontin and fentanyl analogs shoot up. unfortunately, the latter two have more abuse potential and are harder to track down their black market suppliers.

10/22/2009 10:05:13 PM

Quote :

"One gram of heroin worth $3 in Kabul is worth up to $100 on the streets of London, Milan or Moscow, it is estimated."

with profit margins like that, I don't see how the trade could possibly be stopped. And it's not just the kingpins. Afghan farmers grow poppies because they bring in more money than legal crops.

10/23/2009 6:22:23 AM

Quote :

"does not compute i will have to look up where this legal opium trade takes places. afaik, opium is illegal everywhere."

Medicinal usage of opium, morphine, and other opioids, plus confectionery poppy seeds.

Quote :

"if you reduce the supply of opium and heroin, the supply of synthetics like oxycontin and fentanyl analogs shoot up. unfortunately, the latter two have more abuse potential and are harder to track down their black market suppliers."

Yes, but the synthetics wouldn't be as easily used to fund al qaeda and other terror operations in a country we are working to rebuild and make stable.

[Edited on October 23, 2009 at 7:18 AM. Reason : .]

10/23/2009 7:17:32 AM

the article posted about Russia doesn't mention the Country's huge unemployment rate, homeless population, broken families and similar problems.

I'm not sure if anyone could say for sure that those problems have led to the heroin epidemic or that the heroin epidemic caused those problems (most likely they feed off each other). It just seems like some misplaced anger on the farmers of Afghanistan when they have a lot of work to do at home.

10/23/2009 11:25:03 AM

^ Agreed, and I bet vodka plays into that equation 100 times as much as heroin.

10/23/2009 11:54:15 AM

Quote :

"Yes, but the synthetics wouldn't be as easily used to fund al qaeda and other terror operations in a country we are working to rebuild and make stable. "

the largest methampetamine organization ever busted in the US, during Operation Mountain Express, was funding Hezbollah and a couple other middle eastern terrorist organizations. if anything, synthetics make it easier to fund terrorist operations because the drug cartels can be operated from any country by anyone with no geographical markers of where the money is going.

10/23/2009 8:48:57 PM

If I didn't know it was such an absolute life-ruiner I would definitely do an opiate of some kind. I've had a pretty substantial amount of morphine injected into me over my life and if I didn't know how dependent it makes you and how terrible abuse is to your long term health I'd be all over that shit.

Legal prescription pain killers are very tempting, stuff like morphine (and presumably heroin though I've never done it) is just a total mindbender. It's easy to see how people get hooked, but it's also pretty easy to not get hooked by not starting down that path to begin with.

I'm still for drug legalization, but I know how many people would completely fuck themselves up with it. However, most people who would have already found another avenue like prescription narcotics, meth, alcohol, etc. to do it so I don't think there would be a jump in the number of addicts, just a swing in what kind of addict.

10/24/2009 2:50:01 AM