Inside Afghanistan's Opium Addiction
According to the United Nations World Drug Report for 2009, even though opium production decreased 19 percent worldwide in 2008, Afghanistan still produces 93 percent of the world’s supply of opium. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said that opium is “the single greatest challenge to long-term security, development, and effective governance of the country.”
Australia’s ABC News Online’s Sarah Collerton writes that in 2007, Sydney-based writer Gregor Salmon set out to get to the bottom of the illicit trade, determined to explore the “modern story of opium.” For eight months, he traveled through Afghanistan and its neighboring countries to find out about the production of what locals call “teryak.”
Salmon set out to “trace the drug trail from the farmer to the exporter” and discovered that “poppy is not just a crop…it’s a financial system, a finely tuned industry.” Salmon, the author of “Poppy: Life, Death, and Addiction inside Afghanistan’s Opium Trade,” said that he got used to feeling a “constant sense of unease” and managed to talk to farmers, police, government officials, and the Taliban about the crop. He said he also found that corruption is rife in the government and police force, so he doesn’t think the country will be kicking its addiction any time soon.
According to Salmon, farmers are forced to grow opium as a “logical choice.” “It’s a refuge crop for farmers living in a perilous environment,” he said. “The roads are dangerous. (Farmers) are likely to get shot, bombed, or bailed up (when taking crops to markets).” But opium buyers pick up the crops so farmers don’t have to worry about those dangers. “Someone comes to the farm and takes your output away,” he explained.
Salmon said he spoke to several farmers who told him that although growing the crop is against their religion and they don’t want to grow it, they ultimately have no choice because they don’t have much money. Salmon also said the Taliban are benefitting from the production. Taliban commanders and officials told Salmon the general rule is that the Taliban take a 10 percent cut of opium income, which gives them about $500 million per year.
In addition to producing the drug, addiction has also taken hold of citizens throughout the nation, including the police force. “I met a former police officer who told me about how he used to go to his local market and stand over people to get money out of them and if they didn’t give him money he’d beat them up,” Salmon said. “Lots of cops are addicts…as it gives them opportunity to rob people to get money for their habit."
Salmon says that the government attempts to eradicate the crop are a sham. "The whole eradication [program] is corrupt. The poor people get their crops eradicated because they don't have the money to pay off the government. You pay to have your crops spared,” he explained.
“The decay of law and order leaves people feeling there's no justice...that democracy hasn't delivered them justice and they feel betrayed by this. They are between a rock and hard place. Do they endure a predatory government or welcome the Taliban back and live under sufferance again?"
Salmon believes that the next generation will bring with it hope. “It will come down to younger Afghans coming into power who have the will and ability to govern with integrity because this generation of Afghans don't have that," he said.
