The benefits of opium trade

Poppy cultivation maybe contested, but it is a pragmatic adaptation to economic necessity. For most growers it is a question of survival, and part of historic tradition. It is therefore possible to research openly in poppy cultivating areas, to talk to farmers and gather data about farming income. Local opium markets also function with a degree of transparency. In parts of Kandahar, for instance, opium is openly for sale. The trading operation becomes increasingly clandestine as we move upstream, where the quantities became larger, and the direction shifts outward. Once opium has been converted into heroin and prepared for export, every move is shrouded in secrecy, and the information we have is based on anecdotes, confessions and chance encounters.

It is clear, however, that the marketing organisation is well adapted to the intense risk of the country and the characteristics of the product. The commodity chain stretching from farm gate, to laboratory to the border and beyond is well organised. Technical services, inputs and financing available at each stage, making the drugs trade the most efficient sector in the national economy. While farmers gain a living, albeit, precarious, and opium traders a livelihood, the profits accrue higher up the scale. Different parts of the operation yield different returns, and even drug couriers and foot soldiers in the export trade can earn handsome profits. In the absence of alternatives, there is no shortage of recruits for the opium caravans pouring across each of the country’s international borders. Caravans with over 200 camels loaded with opium and heroin cross regularly into Iran. This is one of the most violent border crossings in the world, where over 3,000 members of the Iranian armed forces and an unknown and possibly much larger number of Afghans have lost their lives.

The wealth is concentrated in the hands of power brokers and politicians. In the early years of the current government, president Karzai had to ask the governor of Heart, the province bordering Iran, for help. Reportedly US$ 8 million were flown back to Kabul in a military plane, allowing the government to payroll its staff for a month. Commanders and other power brokers continue to gain benefits from taxes, fees and direct involvement. Ironically, the link between military leadership and opium initiated during the liberation war against the Soviets. Mujahideen used opium to gain an income and an independence from external donors. When the Taliban came to power in the mid 1990s, they tolerated opium poppy cultivation and heroin laboratories on the grounds that the product was supplying export markets, and a clandestine weapon in the fight against the unbeliever. In some areas labs where even taxed. Initial efforts centred on the suppression of hashish, but realising the spreading incidence of opiate use among Afgans they reversed their stance on opium. In 2001 the Taliban declared a jihad, a holy war, on opium and reduced production dramtacially. This did not survive the US led invasion, after when production shot back to new record levels. The Taliban, now in opposition and fighting an insurgency, reversed their position on opium, and are now acting as patrons of opium farmers and heroin laboratories, usually in return for a tax.

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