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Poppies poised comback { November 23 2001 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.vny.com/cf/news/upidetail.cfm?QID=230530http://www.vny.com/cf/news/upidetail.cfm?QID=230530
Report: Afghan poppies poised for comeback
Friday, 23 November 2001 16:51 (ET)
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The Taliban's brief ban on
cultivating poppies has become largely irrelevant in recent weeks
and has set the stage for a return of Afghan opium to the
international heroin trade, according to a published report Friday.
The Los Angeles Times reported that growers in the eastern
region of the war-torn nation have been busy preparing their fields
for new crops of the red flowers that are the raw material for heroin.
"This is a great opportunity for poppy growers," said Samsul Haq,
a deputy director of the Nangarhar Drug Control and Coordination
Office. "The Taliban is gone and there is confusion about what kind
of new order is coming in. Farmers are now free to plant poppies."
Afghanistan has been a major supplier of opium that is derived
from poppies and is used to produce heroin for the European and
North American markets. The Taliban dealt the industry a setback
last year when they suddenly banned poppy farming.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said that estimates in
September showed that Afghanistan had produced an estimated
74 metric tons of opium on 1,685 hectares of land this year
compared to 3,656 metric tons produced in 2000 on 64,510
hectares.
"This eradication effort was apparently in response to an
agreement with the UNDCP (United Nations Drug Control
Program), which agreed to fund alternative development projects
on the condition that cultivation be reduced in Qandahar," the DEA
said.
Farmers told the Times that the ban, coupled with drought in the
region, had a major impact on their incomes, and that they were
eager to make up the losses with new crops now that the Taliban
no longer is around to enforce its prohibition.
"I can make 10 times more on poppies than I can with wheat,"
Ahmed Shah, a small farmer in Nangarhar province, told the
Times.
While farmers may see personal profit from poppies, there have
been concerns in recent years among western intelligence officials
that the Taliban were taking a cut of the revenues and that some of
the profits were used to finance Osama bin Laden's al Qaida
terrorist network.
Investigators trying to unravel al Qaida's operations in the United
States have been reviewing major heroin cases prosecuted in
recent years to see if any of the players were connected to Bin
Laden, George Vinson, Calif. Gov. Gray Davis' security adviser,
told reporters earlier this week.
While the turnover of power in Afghanistan concerns policymakers
and diplomats, it also worries small poppy growers who fear a
vacuum will open the door to any number of warlords and rebel
leaders who will demand their own piece of the action.
Haq told the newspaper that while most farmers are happy about
returning to poppy cultivation, "they also fear that these
commanders will steal their income from the opium."
--
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
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