International Security
Research Paper
Nate Henneman

During the mid 90s, Afghanistan surpassed Myanmar, as the leading producer and exporter of opium in the world. Their rise has been attributed to the increased violence and anti-government organizations giving drug lords the ability to operate without much interference from the government. Afghanistan has extremely fertile lands, which makes growing poppy plants (opium is extracted from the poppy seed) very profitable considering the total opium market value is around $4 billion per year. The lack of governmental intervention coupled with the well suited growing conditions make Afghanistan along with other countries in the Middle East, the perfect manufacturing and shipping or distribution plant of opium in the world. Even though opium is used highly in western medicine when making morphine-based drugs to help relieve pain, opium in the drug trade most often comes in the illegal form of heroin; one of the most abused and highly addictive drugs used recreationally across the globe. Prolonged use causes dependency and constipation, along with the increased risk of contracting blood borne diseases such as HIV or hepatitis. Death by overdose is very prominent as well, around 100,000 per year die from heroin overdose, and around 30,000 of those deaths occur in Russia. “Afghan drug production is an international rather than a local or regional threat,” Russia’s drug control chief, Viktor Ivanov has said. The United States, along with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) have combined resources to eradicate the drug trade in the Middle East, spending close to $500 million this year, and around $6 billion in the past 10 years to try and get farmers to convert their crops, along with bombing already existing poppy fields with no avail. The drug trade out of Afghanistan has not been affected. While in Columbia, the United States paid a small fraction of that spraying existing coca fields with chemicals along with paying farmers to convert their crops, which has proven to be successful in decreasing the narcotic activity of the region. Which leads me to the topic of this paper, why aren’t the efforts of the United States, NATO, and the Russian government having an effect on decreasing the drug trade out of Afghanistan? One of the first things that came to mind when considering this issue was that there has been anti-drug operations carried out in other countries, which have resulted in significant declines in drug production. For example, Columbia, one of the largest producers and manufacturers of cocaine, which comes from the coca plant. When the United States partnered up with the Colombian government to solve the drug problem, they spent a total of around $700 million on aerial spraying of the coca plant fields along with paying farmers to convert their coca plant fields into growing other crops. It is possible for governments to solve their countries drug problems, but the one in Afghanistan has had significantly more resources poured into finding a solution but the opium production and trade continues to rise. My opinion to why I think that even through the frivolous efforts of these large organizations there has still not been an effect on decreasing the drug trafficking out of Afghanistan has mostly to do with the sheer size of the network. Afghanistan has produced on average from 2006-2012 somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 tons of opium per year, resulting in about 95% of the heroin consumed globally per annum. With a total market price of around $33 billion per year, this is one of the main reasons why farmers would rather grow opium as opposed to any other sort of crops (Numbers taken from United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime from World Drug Report 2012). With a market that large and that valuable, the number of people tied to it could be incredibly large, and trying arrest or track everyone involved would take a very long time as well as countless resources. The war and conflicts occurring in the middle east at this time are also increasing the number of farmers living in poverty, so they are more willing to take the risks of opium production in order to make enough money to feed and support their families. All of these factors are just facilitating the opium market in Afghanistan regardless of the outside resources being put in to prevent it. Unless there is an strong effort from the governments of the countries being affected by the opium trade to really crack down and eliminate or substantially decrease the amount opium being imported into their countries, I do not think we will really be able to make a dent in the Afghanistan opium market. The theory behind this idea comes from is that instead of trying to spend money on farmers trying to convert their crops or trying to spray the poppy fields with chemicals, if governments spent more resources on eradicating the opium problem from their own countries, for example Russia, then the producers in Afghanistan would have very few people to sell to leading to a massive decrease in the market. Many of the arguments surrounding the Afghanistan opium market revolve around the one basic principle, that once we eliminate the narcotics trade in Afghanistan, this will lead to much easier solutions to other problems in the area along with throughout the world. One of the biggest problems is what the opium market does for everyone involved. It provides farmers with security and protection, it pays the producers and traffickers very well, making it worth the risk, along with providing an extra stream of cash into powerful groups and officials who are a part of the Taliban as well as government workers. There are a lot of skeptics who argue that with the withdrawal of the NATO troops this only decreases the chances of success. “The withdrawal is one worry. As the money from the Western military and civilian aid programs dwindles, the relative importance of opium to the economy is likely only to increase, said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan.” There is much talk that none of the efforts will be successful due to a decrease in support and funding from both the United States government along with NATO and other European countries. Adding to it, the amount of people who would stop benefiting from a decrease in the opium trade means that the anti-drug groups in the region have received much negativity and opposition making their job even harder than it already is.
There was a Chemical Bill trying to be passed during the George Bush Jr. Presidency, which was modeled after a very similar one that was adopted by Colombia, which would have allowed for aerial spraying of the opium fields to kill off the plants; but there were two issues with this bill. The first issue was that no one really believed the sprays involved would only affect the poppy plants and not have an adverse reaction in the environment, causing harm to the surrounding lands. The second issue with the Chemical Bill was that diplomats believed it would drive the poppy seed farmers further into poverty, in turn forcing them resort to turning to the Taliban for assistance which would only help the terrorist organization gain in power. One of the main reasons for the push to eradicate the opium trade out of Afghanistan is that the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group that uses terrorism to spread their ideologies and attempt to gain political control, uses the opium trade as one of the main sources for their income to help supply them with weapons and transportation. Acquiring around $150 million per year from the drug trade out of Afghanistan, it is apparent how big of an impact it there would be if the narcotic market were to be severely impacted. This leads into the idea that a eliminating the opium market in Afghanistan would then lead to an overall wellbeing of the country, eliminating a major terror organization and hopefully bringing more peace to the area.
There is also a very strong tie with the drug trade’s influence over government officials and the police. Even though the job of the police is to locate areas with heavy illegal drug activity and arrest those involved, many of the police officers in the nation are reaping the benefits from being involved in one way or another with the opium trade. This leads to many problems. For starters, it goes against the duty of the police to be involved with any sort of criminal activity. They are supposed to be aiding the public by eliminating or reducing criminal activity; their strong involvement in the opium industry only perpetuates the problem. On a much larger scale though, opium cartels in Afghanistan have started to develop and this brings rise to competition. The police in one area will specifically send a raid team to a competing opium production facility in order to maintain continued security and payment from the opium cartel that they are supporting and involved with. This poses as one of the biggest problems of all, because if the United States and NATO are sending in troops and resources to try and combat the opium trade, many of the officials the troops would be working with would then be corrupt, leading to a waste of time and resources. One of the other arguments made on to why the opium trade may not be seeing a decline comes from Afghanistan’s deputy counter-narcotics minister, Ibrahim Azhar, “While Kremlin leaders pay lip service working to halt the flow of drugs from my country into Russia, they have little to actually show for it. They make loud statements to maintain their image and confidence in them…these statements have been made before but have not resulted in any success.” Coming from an Afghani official, he believes that Russia is not doing enough in their part to help eradicate the drug trade. Azhar believes that much of the opium problem in Afghanistan stems from Russia’s high demand for the drug, leading to increased illegal activity in order to transport the processed opium from Afghanistan to Russia. As previously stated, Russia accounts for around 30,000 of the total deaths per year by cause of heroin/opium overdose. This leads us to believe that there is a much higher amount of opium that is being illegally trafficked from Afghanistan to Russia. Now if Azhar is correct, that Russia is not doing enough to eradicate the drug problem, then this could very well be solution to the problem. When told of Azhar’s comment on Russia not doing enough to aid in the decline of the opium trade, Russia’s drug control chief Viktor Ivanov blamed NATO for their lack of ability to properly fight the poppy cultivation in Afghanistan during its 12 years of fighting the Taliban extremists. There is a trend of pointing fingers here. Each organization or country does not want to be fully blamed and have the responsibility for not being successful in his or her attempts to put an end to the massive opium trade coming out of Afghanistan.
This brings me to the argument that I find most convincing comes from Zarar Ahmed Muqbel Osmani, the minister for counternarcotic. He has been a forefront leader in increasing the poppy eradication efforts to make it possible for farmers to grow other crops and has been lobbying for an alternate crop program. When asked what it would take to really affect the Afghani’s drug problem, “Political will.” This is statement was very powerful to me when I read it. The problem lies in the infrastructure of the government. For so many years the people of Afghanistan have relied heavily on the opium trade as a means for survival; even people who aren’t as poor as the farmers such as the police officers and the government officials are deeply connected with the opium market. Everyone has become so used to the lifestyle that it brings, a constant flow of cash and security, that they do not realize its affects outside of their country. Where HIV and other blood born pathogens are running rampant as more and more people get a hold of the heroin and other morphine based products that are derived from the poppy plant. Now Afghanistan is not all to blame for the deaths and spread of these diseases, because there are other countries that grow the poppy and process it into opium. Since Afghanistan cultivates almost 5 times as much opium poppy than all other countries combined, it is safe to assume that a solution to the opium trade out of Afghanistan would significantly decrease the amount of heroin and other opiates available worldwide leading to a decline in the number of people contracting and transmitting blood born pathogens. A more realistic example of this situation can be found in the following situation. Country A is a country that uses Now if the solution to the drug trade in Afghanistan lies in the lack current lack of political will, what would this mean for the countries and organizations such as Russia, the United States, and NATO’s efforts spending time and resources trying to combat the trade? It means that no matter how much money and resources are spent trying to solve the problem, it will be almost impossible for any real progress to be made without the full support of the Afghani government. This means that until the corrupt officials and police officers are brought to justice and realize the global effects of their actions, it will be extremely difficult for outside forces to make any dent in the opium trade. Some of the empirical indicators that would give way to validating this potential solution to the problem would be along the lines of other examples where an increase in political will was able to solve a problem. Plan Colombia is a perfect example of this. In the year 2000, President Andres Pastrana pledged $4 billion of Colombian resources in order to fight the narcotics trade (growing the coca plant and its manufacturing and processing into cocaine) and to help bring peace to the region. The rest of the resources came internationally, and the United States provided around $700 million in support of the movement. Plan Colombia was successful, resulting in a 12.8% decrease in production of cocaine that would reach the consumer markets (about 52,000 kilograms) from 2000 to 2006, an elimination of around 40,000 hectares of coca producing land. I believe one of the biggest reasons that Plan Colombia was this successful was due to the fact that President Andres Pastrana was the forefront of the operation. He willingly was able to take action and get results. It also helped that there were not as many corrupt officials in the government and police officers in Colombia during this time. Pastrana was able to summon the help of international organizations, such as the United States, because he knew it was a difficult task and would require more resources than he could provide. This strong political will of the government in Colombia is one of the reasons it was such a success. With this information, we can understand more what Afghanistan could be doing wrong in trying to make a negative impact on the opium trade. Many of their leaders recognize the problem, and many of them are doing as much as they can to, but until the whole government is on board, and the corrupt police and officials either change their ways or are apprehended, then a successful mission to eliminate the Afghani drug problem cannot be accomplished.
I acquired the evidence for this paper from various sources, including articles in the New York Times, published papers on the matter, official documents released by the United States State Department, as well as information found on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime website. All sources were cited and footnoted. Some of the graphs on the World Drug Report from 2012 sent out by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime deemed very resourceful when finding out numbers that were needed when discussing the production and exportation of opium and opium related products coming out of Afghanistan. Below are a few charts that I used heavily when acquiring this data, taken from the 2012 World Drug Report.

In conclusion, there is a serious drug problem going on in Afghanistan, not only affecting the lives of the locals, but the lives of people across the globe. A solution to this problem could also help solve many of the current disputes that are occurring in the country right now. Judging from past events, a strong backing from the Afghani government should make progress in eradicating poppy fields along with decreasing the drug trade various other countries. The problem could be much deeper than that though, and a simple change in the mindset of the government could have no affect at all.

--------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. Pyatakov, Sergey. "Afghan Drug Trade Threat to Global Stability - Russian Drug Chief."RIANOVOSTI. N.p., 08 June 2012. Web. 17 Mar. 2013.
[ 2 ]. "United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime." United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.
[ 3 ]. Kandahar, Afghanistan., Alissa J. Rubin And Matthew Rosenberg; Taimoor Shah Contributed Reporting From. "U.S. Efforts Fail To Curtail Trade In Afghan Opium." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 May 2012. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.
[ 4 ]. "Russia's Afghan Anti-drug Efforts Panned." UPI. United Press International, 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.
[ 5 ]. Ibid.
[ 6 ]. Kandahar, Afghanistan., Alissa J. Rubin And Matthew Rosenberg; Taimoor Shah Contributed Reporting From. "U.S. Efforts Fail To Curtail Trade In Afghan Opium." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 May 2012. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.
[ 7 ]. UNODC, World Drug Report 2012 (United Nations
Publication, Sales No. E.12.XI.1).
[ 8 ]. 03/28/00: Fact Sheet: Plan Colombia." U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State, 28 Mar. 2000. Web. 02 Apr. 2013.
[ 9 ]. Mejia, Daniel. "The War on Drugs under Plan Colombia." Yale Center for the Study of Globalization (2011): 21-29. Universidad De Los Andes. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
[ 10 ]. Acevedo, Beatriz, Dave Bewley Taylor, and Coletta Youngers. "Ten Years of Plan Colombia." The Beckely Foundation Drug Policy Programme 16 (2008): 9-10. Print.