Opium and Narcotics and other Afghanistan Warning Or Danger Tips

Opium production in Afghanistan is on the rise and its now the world's leading producer of opium. Drug lords exist with little threat to their operations.

We met Mirwais Yasini, the head of the anti-narcotics dept in Kabul, and he was a concerned man too. A small task force he leads, compared to the size of the problem. Production has gone up many-fold over the past few years, and there is reason to believe that some of the proceeds go in to funding the Al Quaida etc.

The main problem however is that the lure for the farmer to grow opium is really high...In a country where annual incomes barely reach $170, farmers can earn up to $6,500 a year from opium production, they can make up to 38 times as much growing opium as they can from wheat. Opium has long been used as a traditional medicine in Afghanistan, but now its illegal to grow poppy.The Karzai government has often come up with schemes to get opium farmers to shift away from poppy cultivation, but its never really worked very effectively compared to the opportunity cost...

The police and narcotics dept will put you thru a pretty thorough search on your way out of the country at the airport... your suitcase may go thru some rough moments. So pack with care...

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Website: http://www.af/ag/narcotics/index.asp

Kabul, 6th september 2002, 4pm

With the numerous ethnic groups, warlords, al quaida, taliban, and all the baggage from afghan history books, more attacks like this bomb blast in the middle of a crowded marketplace are bieng expected in the future.

Fortunate or unfortunate, we were not too far when it happened. We got our shots.

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