UN fears Afghan opium 'explosion'

[Forkboy]

UN fears Afghan opium 'explosion'

The United Nations says it fears that Afghanistan may grow even more poppies in 2007 - at a time when current levels are already running at record output.

Poppy production rose 25% in 2006, according to the US State Department.

The UN says although production of poppies, used to make heroin, has fallen in the north and centre, a sharp rise is likely in the lawless south.

It also cites a dramatic increase in cannabis growing, which it describes as a new and disturbing trend.

In a report published on Monday, the UN office on drugs and crime said it was clear that the increased production in the south was a security issue.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6421749.stm

[frylock]

1. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade

Nearly 20 years ago, McCoy wrote The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia , which stirred up considerable controversy, alleging that the CIA was intimately involved in the Vietnamese opium trade. In the current volume, a substantially updated and longer work, he argues that pk the situation basically hasn't changed over the past two decades; however the numbers have gotten bigger. McCoy writes, "Although the drug pandemic of the 1980s had complex causes, the growth in global heroin supply could be traced in large part to two key aspects of U.S. policy: the failure of the DEA's interdiction efforts and the CIA's covert operations." He readily admits that the CIA's role in the heroin trade was an "inadvertent" byproduct of "its cold war tactics," but he limns convincingly the path by which the agency and its forebears helped Corsican and Sicilian mobsters reestablish the heroin trade after WW II and, most recently, "transformed southern Asia from a self-contained opium zone into a major supplier of heroin." Scrupulously documented, almost numbingly so at times, this is a valuable corrective to the misinformation being peddled by anti-drug zealots on both sides of the aisle. First serial to the Progressive.

http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Heroin-Complicity-Global-Trade/dp/1556521251

see also:

The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs

Before the Drug Enforcement Administration was created in 1973, before the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs was founded in 1968, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) served as the country’s primary drug law enforcement agency. In this thoroughly researched history, Valentine (The Phoenix Program; The Hotel Tacloban, etc.) offers an in-depth look at the FBN’s obscure organization and its various activities, which lasted from 1930 until the end of the ‘60s. Valentine writes extensively about Harry J. Anslinger, the commissioner whose "personality, policies and appointments" defined the agency and the government’s war on drugs for more than 30 years. He describes how FBN officers were trained to "make arrests, gather evidence for presentation in court, test and handle seized narcotics, tail suspects without being seen, and rule their informants with an iron fist." Drawing upon interviews with former agents and federal officers (such as Howard Chappell, George Gaffney and Col. Tully Acampora), Valentine also provides firsthand accounts of bureau operations both at home and abroad, and of business relationships fostered among FBN ranks. Despite the volume’s ambitious premise and Valentine’s hard work, however, this lengthy history will probably fail to engross most casual readers since its material proves dense and, occasionally, difficult. But for political historians and those already interested in the history of the war on drugs, Valentine’s unearthing of rare primary sources should prove invaluable.

http://www.amazon.com/Strength-Wolf-Secret-History-Americas/dp/1844675645/ref=sr_1_1/002-4161068-4956041?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173159952&sr=1-1

[azurnoir]

2. Farmers need to make a living too

and I just don't think sugar beets or soy beans bring quite the market price opium poppies or pot (hash?) does.

[bemildred]

3. The horse is kind of out of the barn there, Dude. nt