In the darkest corners
of Kabul, one can find
the true story of the
West's decade-long war
in Afghanistan. In these
corners huddle men,
although they appear
frail and ghost-like. They
are casualties of war,
although most do not
appear wounded. Instead,
they have been swept up
in the drug-use epidemic which has swept
across Afghanistan since the 2001US,
Canada and NATO invasion. Many
started smoking opium before moving on
to heroin and other drugs.
Opium production and use swiftly
marched into Afghanistan on the heels
of US and NATO troops. The problem
of Afghanistan's skyrocketing opium
production has not been limited to that
country, however. The West still consumes
the lion's share of Afghanistan's opium
production, and heroin has become
increasingly cheap and more readily
available in the US in recent years.
Afghanistan Before the War
Although there is no exact history of when
opium production began in Afghanistan,
it was brought into the region by the
British in the 1800s and its cultivation
encouraged for trade in India. However,
opium production in Afghanistan
remained relatively low until the country
came under the control of the warlords
of the US-supported Northern Alliance
following the Soviet Union’s withdrawal
from Afghanistan in 1989. Between 1994
and 2000, opium production reached an
average rate of 68,000 hectares of poppy
per year.
In 2000, then-Taliban leader Mullah
Omar ordered an end to opium production
in Afghanistan, declaring it un-Islamic.
By 2001, opium production had dropped
by 90%. A New York Times article from
May 2001 acknowledges that “American
narcotics officials who visited the country
confirmed earlier United Nations reports
that the Taliban had, in one growing
season, managed a rare triumph in the
long and losing war on drugs. And they
did it without the usual multimillion-
dollar aid packages that finance police
raids, aerial surveillance and crop subsidies
for farmers.” But this success was short-
lived. In October 2001, the US invaded
Afghanistan.
Who is Promoting Opium in
Afghanistan?
By the spring of 2002 – just months after
the US invasion – opium production had
risen from 8,000 hectares of plants to
74,000 hectares, according to the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
It has continued to rise nearly every year
since then, with record-high production
levels of 224,000 hectares of opium fields
in 2014. Today, Afghanistan supplies 90%
of the world’s opium – much of it being
refined into heroin.
The United States alone has spent over $7
billion on counternarcotics programs in
Afghanistan. They have declared they are
fighting a ‘war on drugs.’ Yet with all these
resources, they have failed to do in over a
decade what the Taliban managed to do
in a year: put a halt to opium production.
The latest UNODC report shows that
they have utterly failed to even slow the
production of the drug. In 2009, Richard
Holbrooke, the US Special Representative
for Afghanistan and Pakistan, called the
US counternarcotics effort in Afghanistan
“the most wasteful and ineffective
program I have seen in 40 years in and
out of government.” Last year, US Special
Inspector General for Afghanistan John
Sopko said that Afghanistan was in danger
of becoming a “narco-criminal state.”
These are damning indictments from top
diplomats in the area.
Why has the ‘war on drugs’ in Afghanistan
failed so miserably?
The focus of the US counternarcotics
program in Afghanistan has largely
been on eradication of the opium crop,
through burning or plowing farmers’ fields.
But despite eliminating thousands of
hectares of crop – and destroying the sole
livelihoods of farmers and communities in
the process – hardly a dent has been put in
overall production.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have
also been spent on ineffectual programs
ostensibly aimed at ending Afghan farmers’
reliance on opium. However, attempts to
convince farmers to grow wheat, soy or
other crops have largely failed – in part
because the programs have been imposed
with little or no study of local growing
conditions or markets, but largely because
opium poppy remains a far more lucrative
crop. Farmers who want to be able to feed
and house their families have little choice
but to grow opium poppy.
However, the major
problem with the
‘war on drugs’ in
Afghanistan is that
the US and their
allies are in fact
doing far more to
support the drug
economy than they
are to eliminate
it. Since 2001,
they have worked
against the Taliban
in close association
with nefarious
warlords and drug
traffickers of the
Northern Alliance.
A 2010 report by
US Congressional
investigators titled
“Warlord, Inc.”
found that the US
Department of
Defense had spent more than $2 billion
on security and transportation contracts
which lined the pockets of notorious
warlords. The weapons and financial
support provided to these men served to
consolidate their power as well as their
drug empires.
Today, many of these warlords serve
in the highest levels of the US- and
NATO- backed Afghan government. Wali
Karzai, former chairman of the Kandahar
Provincial Council and brother to then-
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was well-
known to US officials as a drug trafficker.
Yet he was not only supported by US
forces, but also spent eight years on the
payroll of the CIA!
US officials would have us believe that the
problem of corruption and involvement in
the drug trade is just a matter of a few ‘bad
apples’ in the government or police forces
that can be eliminated through better
governance. However, this is simply not
the case. A former CIA officer interviewed
by the New York Times in 2009 asserted
that “virtually every significant Afghan
figure has had brushes with the drug
trade.” A 2007 report by the US military’s
Strategic Studies Institute found that
“Afghan government officials are now
believed to be involved in at least 70
percent of opium trafficking, and experts
estimate that at least 13 former or present
provincial governors are directly involved
in the drug trade.” The same report also
found that “Although Afghanistan’s
overall economy is being boosted by
opium profits, less than 20 percent of the
$3 billion in opium profits actually goes to
impoverished farmers, while more than 80
percent goes into the pockets of Afghan’s
opium traffickers and kingpins and their
political connections.”
Corruption is not merely a “problem” in the
Afghan government – it is the fundamental
way in which it operates. This is the drug-
fueled “democracy” which the US, Canada
and NATO support in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s Addiction Crisis
According to 2010 Afghan government
statistics, there are about 1.6 million
Afghans addicted to drugs, primarily
opium and heroin. Other estimates put
the number closer to 3 million – or at
about 10% of the population. In the
cities, men with severe addiction huddle
under bridges, desperate for a fix. But the
problem extends to women and children as
well – especially in the countryside, whole
families struggle with opium addiction.
Historically, Afghans have produced opium,
but few consumed the drug, which was
largely exported. The increase in availability
of opium and heroin in the country since
2001 has undoubtedly contributed to
the addiction crisis – but it is only one
factor. Poverty, unemployment, lack of
health care, and the perpetual desperation
and uncertainty of life under foreign
occupation have fuelled the country’s
skyrocketing drug
use as well.
In parts of rural
Afghanistan,
whole villages
have become
addicted to opium.
Many are first
exposed to the
drug when they
become sick or
injured. In remote
areas where there
are no doctors
or medicine is
not available or
affordable, people
self-medicate
with opium, and
the downward
spiral of addiction
begins. Children
often become
addicts before their first birthday, with
parents giving them opium to quieten
them in their sickness or hungry stomachs.
Soon, whole families and villages –
grandchildren through grandparents – are
addicted.
Afghanistan’s high unemployment rate
– estimated at around 40% - is another
contributing factor. “If I had a job, I
wouldn’t be here,” an addict named Farooq
told the BBC. He has a degree in medicine
and once worked as a hospital manager.
Many are also internally displaced persons
– refugees in their own country who have
been forced out of their homes – and their
jobs – due to fighting and instability.
The crisis of addiction
in Afghanistan cannot be solved with
more police or military, or even more
efforts put into eradication of the opium
crop. Afghans need hospitals and clinics
to treat those suffering from addiction.
They need access to health care and basic
necessities such as clean drinking water
and sanitation to prevent people from
becoming ill in the first place. They need
jobs – and ones that pay more than $2
a day. Despite more than a decade of
foreign military intervention, there has
been no meaningful improvement in
these areas.
Which Way Out of the Crisis?
The legacy of the United States, Canada
and NATO in Afghanistan has not been
the promised security, democracy, and
human rights for all. Instead Afghans
have been left with a country ruled
by powerful drug lords, an economy
dependent on opium, and an epidemic of
drug addiction.
If the US and NATO truly wanted to
end opium production in Afghanistan,
they could have done so. After all, the
Taliban managed to do this in a matter
of months! Clearly it is possible to do
so. However, the evidence of the past
14 years shows that the US and their
allies are more interested in supporting
and building alliances with those in
Afghanistan who are willing to serve their
strategic, political and economic interests
in the region than helping Afghans build
a stable and democratic country. Serving
US and NATO interests in Afghanistan
has meant working with a government of
warlords and drug lords – not working to
eliminate it.
What Afghans need to end the drug
crisis in their country is not soldiers or
foreign military contractors (100,000 of
which remain
in the country).
Over the last
decade, the US,
Canada and
NATO have
done nothing
but legitimize the
drug trafficking
industry in the
country and
ruin the lives of
millions of Afghans. Nothing
can be done to end the drug
trade or build a better country for Afghans
while they remain there, supporting a
government of tyrannical drug lords.
Out Now!
The first step in eliminating the drug
problem in Afghanistan is for all troops and
foreign contractors to leave. For Afghans,
the road to rebuilding their country and
government will not be easy after so many
years of war and occupation – but it is the
only way forward. We must support them
in their struggle for self-determination.
Although the plight of the Afghan people
has faded from media reports, the struggle
to free the country from foreign occupation
and interference is not over. Peace-loving
people in Canada, the United States and
around the world have a responsibility to
continue the fight to end the occupation
of Afghanistan and demand self-
determination for the Afghan people.
Back to Article Listing
