Posted by Nickengland on July 25, 2005, at 6:21:07
I watched a very interesting documentry last night on the BBC (Panorama) all about Heroin from Afghanistan, the production, farmers and poppy crops etc..
I just thought I would post a new thread as a kind of "follow up" to the last one which focused on the decriminalisation of drugs as heroin was spoken about quite abit.
It appears America is leading the war at present (with the UK in partnership) in eradicating the poppy crops completely from Afghanistan. In actual fact the Americans had been leading the way using a pretty strong approach using what they were doing pretty well at stopping exportation and production etc.. lol then the UK kind of got involved and and in the previous few years production has risen (due to the UK using a softly, softly tactics) Now though they would appear to be back on track...
Using slightly different tactics, the UK Tax payer is actually funding alternative crops for the opium farmers to produce for their livelihood. Because of course just eradicating the opium poppy fields is one thing, but then massive farming communties have no income.
In doing so they are working over the next couple of years building rivers, canals and roads etc to help transport the alternative crops they will be able to produce to be able to market them etc.
LOL - I'm trying to remember alot of what they were saying the programme :-o
Ahhh yes lol (sorry about that slight medication memory loss) The farmers made some pretty interesting points too. They were saying "we can't be made to feel guilty for all the problems in the West the poppy causes in western countries....as we would not produce and be able to sell it to them if there was not such a huge market on offer to us there. (very interesting point and of course true)...
A british person said whos working on this over there - you can't win this just by eradicating the crop, it has to start there, there then has to be a middle ground (with the farmers, keep them happy and with exportation etc.) and then finally what happens the other end. "Why on earth do you people need to abuse heroin in the first place" - these are not my words, but one of the Afghan farmers. But basically you can equate this to saying things need not only be sorted out from the source of the problem but from the end result too...being at the worst case senario the addict who injects with addiction problems etc..
Anyway very interesting programme (I always like stuff about illigal drugs) It also mentioned about the Taliban's invovlment back in 2002...alot of Al Queda is funded by the illiagal exports of Heroin too.
Lastly some interesting figures on Heroin and the UK.
90% of the Heroin in the UK is from Afghanistan.
The Crimes resulted from Heroin cost at present, £15 Billion pounds a year to the UK. (thats offical Government figures..the true cost could well be higher)
Kind regards
Nick
poster:Nickengland
thread:533163
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20050509/msgs/533163.html