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POLITICS: Opium Production Still Climbing, UN Says

Barin Masoud

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 26 2007 (IPS) - While some encouraging advancements have been made to contain a global drug epidemic, opium production in Afghanistan’s southern provinces continues to climb, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported Tuesday.

“There is some grounds for optimism that the runaway train of drug addiction is being slowed down,” said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UNODC, in a statement.

“For almost all drugs – cocaine, heroin, cannabis and amphetamines – there are signs of overall stability, whether we speak of production, trafficking or consumption,” he said. “[But] some obvious problems remain, like opium in the south of Afghanistan – a cancer that threatens security and health and breeds corruption.”

The report says that, “Helmand province is on the verge of becoming the world’s biggest drug supplier, with the dubious distinction of cultivating more drugs than entire countries such as Myanmar, Morocco or even Colombia.”

It identifies the world’s biggest drug producing centres as “regions beyond the control of the central government[s].” Southern Afghanistan, southwest Colombia and east Myanmar top the list.

Afghanistan continues to struggle with a shattered economy following decades of war. As of 2003, the year of the U.S. invasion, 53 percent of the population was living below the poverty line, the CIA World Factbook says.

Last year, the Senlis Council, a British-based group that closely follows the situation in Afghanistan, said in a report that the country’s “rising levels of extreme poverty have created increasing support for the Taliban, who have responded to the needs of the local population.”

The U.S.-British-sponsored poppy eradication programme has been a disaster, one expert told IPS last year. “It is a direct attack on the livelihood of the farmers, so there is a clear connection between the eradication and this humanitarian crisis,” he said.

About 92 percent of the world’s heroin comes from poppies grown in the fields of Afghanistan, according to the 2007 U.N. drug report. Some 606 metric tonnes of opium was produced last year alone.

Afghanistan is also facing the problem of drug abuse at the domestic level. A nationwide survey earlier this year found that there were at least one million drug addicts in the country, including 60,000 children under the age of 15.

Conversely, in Southeast Asia as a whole, poppy cultivation over the last decade is down by 85 percent, the UNODC report says. “Southeast Asia is closing a tragic chapter that has blighted the Golden Triangle for decades – the region is now almost opium free. Yet it is not free of poverty and therefore farmers remain vulnerable to the temptations of illicit incomes,” the report says.

It suggests that much more aid and assistance should be made available to the region, including alternative crop programmes and “viable income substitution,” to ensure positive development and long-lasting eradication. This may be applicable in tackling illegal drug production in other regions as well, according to the report.

“Until government control, democracy and the rule of law are restored, these regions will remain nests of insurgency and drug production – and represent the biggest challenge to containment,” the report warns.

Worldwide, opium production has climbed to 6,610 metric tonnes, a 43 percent increase since 2005, it says.

As a result, neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, Iran, Russia and India, as well as Africa, are experiencing an increase in heroin use, which can exacerbate the high HIV/AIDS and poverty rates already seen in many countries, the report cautions.

In terms of cocaine trafficking globally, “with production largely stable, there are encouraging signs that progress is being made at reducing supply through growing rates of interdiction,” it says.

Most of the world’s cocaine supply is derived from coca leaves grown in Colombia, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. The largest consumer of cocaine continues to be the United States, the report says.

Authorities seized about 42 percent of the world supply of cocaine in 2006, whereas the interdiction rate was just 24 percent in 2000, according to the report.

“Improved cooperation among law enforcement bodies in and across countries appears to have led to an increase in seizures in and around the producer countries,” the report reveals. “In fact, 58 percent of global cocaine seizures took place in South America, the Caribbean and Central America in 2005.”

“The world’s largest cocaine seizures in 2005 were, once again, made by Colombia, followed by the USA, Venezuela, Spain, Ecuador and Mexico,” the report says.

However, “Cannabis is the largest illicit drug market by far, including roughly 160 million annual consumers,” the report notes.

UNODC estimates that at least 172 countries are involved with the production of the prohibited plant.

Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) are another sector that has stabilised, although the demand for amphetamines is greater than heroin or cocaine with 15-16 million users.

“The alarming increases in the production of ATS throughout the 1990s seem to have leveled off over the last few years,” the report says. “This is likely a result of recent efforts to monitor and improve precursor control.”

Of the world population of 6.4 billion people, approximately 25 million of them are drug users, the report estimates.

UNODC has urged global cooperation in continuing the fight against drugs. “This is shared responsibility: internationally – between producing and consuming states; regionally – among neighbouring countries; and nationally – among all sectors of society,” Costa said.

Tuesday also marks the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture at the United Nations Headquarters. *****