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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
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Results for opium
36 results foundAuthor: Palaung Women's Organisation Title: Poisoned Hills: Opium Cultivation Surges Under Government Control in Burma Summary: Community assessments by the Palaung Women's Organisation (PWO) during the past two years reveal that the amount of opium being cultivated in Burma's northern Shan State has been increasing dramatically. The amounts are far higher than reported in the annual opium surveys of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), and are flourishing not in "insurgent and ceasefire areas," as claimed by the United Nations, but in areas controlled by Burma's military government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). PWO's findings highlight the structural issues underlying the drug problem in Burma. The regime is pursuing a strategy of increased militarization in the ethnic states to crush ethnic resistence movements, instead of entering into political negotiations with them. For this, it needs an ever growing apparatus, which in turn is subsidized by the drug trade. The regime's desire to maintain power at all costs is thus taking precedence over its stated aims of drug eradication. Details: Mae Sot, Thailand: 2010 Source: Year: 2010 Country: Burma URL: Shelf Number: 117381 Keywords: Drug EnforcementOpium |
Author: Lind, Jo Thori Title: Opium for the Masses? Conflict-Induced Narcotics Production in Afghanistan. Summary: Opium production in Afghanistan has helped finance holy wars against Soviet occupation, violent power contests among warlords, the rise of Taliban and its way to power, and the present resistance against Western intervention. What is less well known is how conflicts have spurred opium production as well. This paper shows how the recent rise in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan can be understood as a direct consequence of the rising violent conflicts. Details: Munich: Center for Economic Studies & Ifo Institute for Economic Research, 2009. 30p. Source: CESifo Working Paper; no. 2573 Year: 2009 Country: Afghanistan URL: Shelf Number: 113843 Keywords: Narcotics ProductionOpiumViolence |
Author: Peters, Gretchen Title: How Opium Profits the Taliban Summary: In Afghanistan's poppy-rich southwest, a raging insurgency intersects a thriving opium trade. This study examines how the Taliban profit from narcotics, probes how traffickers influence the strategic goals of the insurgency, and considers the extent to which narcotics are changing the nature of the insurgency itself. Details: Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2009. 39p. Source: Peaceworks No. 62 Year: 2009 Country: Afghanistan URL: Shelf Number: 115811 Keywords: Drug MarketsDrug TraffickingNarcoticsOpiumTaliban |
Author: Jelsma, Martin Title: Redefining Targets: Towards a Realistic Afghan Drug Control Strategy Summary: This policy briefing provides an update on the drug control efforts in Afghanistan and outlines policy dilemmas on drugs production, trafficking and consumption issues facing Afghan officials and international agencies today. It also reflects concerns and needs of heroin users and - former - opium farmers. Key issues include the chronic absence of coordination of drug control efforts; the foreign-driven and often hypocritical nature of the agenda; and the difficulties in defining realistic drug policy objectives. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2009. 12p. Source: Drug Policy Briefing No. 30; Internet Resource Year: 2009 Country: Afghanistan URL: Shelf Number: 119837 Keywords: Drug Control Policy (Afghanistan)Drug TraffickingOpium |
Author: Kramer, Tom Title: From Golden Triangle to Rubber Belt? The Future of Opium Bans in the Kokang and Wa Regions Summary: In the Kokang and Wa regions in northern Burma opium bans have ended poppy cultivation, but have caused chronic poverty and food insecurity as a result. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2009. 12p. Source: Internet Resource; Drug Policing Briefing No. 29 Year: 2009 Country: Burma URL: Shelf Number: 119157 Keywords: Drug Enforcement (Burma)Drug Policy (Burma)NarcoticsOpium |
Author: Youngers, Coletta A. Title: Development First: A More Humane and Promising Approach to Reducing Cultivation of Crops for Illicit Markets Summary: This report lays out a more promising approach to reducing the cultivation of coca and poppy crops used in the production of cocaine and heroin. It is based on improving the welfare of poor farmers via comprehensive development strategies that include improving local governance and citizen security, combined with voluntary reductions in cultivation of crops deviated to the illicit market. Implemented in tandem with effective demand reduction strategies to contain and eventually shrink the global cocaine and heroin markets, the "development first" approach has the potential to gradually achieve sustainable reductions in coca and opium poppy cultivation by reducing poor farmers' reliance on such crops. Details: Washington, DC: Washington Office on Latin America, 2009. 39p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2009 Country: International URL: Shelf Number: 119214 Keywords: CocaineDrug ControlDrug MarketsDrugsIllegal DrugsOpiumPoverty |
Author: Ahrari, Ehsan Title: Narco-Jihad: Drug Trafficking and Security in Afghanistan and Pakistan Summary: Narcotics production and trafficking is a critical dimension of the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan. With Afghanistan as the world's largest opium producer, narcotics are the economic lynchpin connecting key players in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. The increase in narco-trafficking routes through Russia and Central Asia to supply global demand introduces important international variables. This report assesses the global and regional dynamics of narcotics production and trafficking in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the implications for counterinsurgency efforts in the region. Details: Seattle, WA: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2009. 57p. Source: Internet Resource; NBR Special Report No. 20 Year: 2009 Country: Asia URL: Shelf Number: 117571 Keywords: Drug TraffickingDrug Trafficking ControlNarcoticsOpium |
Author: Mansfield, David Title: An Analysis of Licit Opium Poppy Cultivation: India and Turkey Summary: For most of the 20th Century, morphine and codeine have been used for the relief of pain, suppressing coughs, and treating diarrhoea. Indeed, in the last thirty years both opiates have been recommended by the World Health Organisation as essential therapeutic tools with a wide range of medical applications and, more recently, in the treatment of cancer-related pain. Consequently, over the last twenty years the demand for opiate raw materials has increased significantly. However, mirroring this increase in the demand for opiates for legitimate medical and scientific needs has been an increasing concern over the illegal use of opiates, from smoking and eating opium in the 19th Century to smoking and injecting heroin in the late part of the 20th Century. The challenge for the international community has been to establish a regulatory system that ensures that the legitimate medical and scientific needs for opiates are met, whilst preventing diversion to illicit markets. This report seeks to assess the scale and nature of any potential diversion from the licit trade through a comparative analysis of the different processes and controls applied in two source countries, India and Turkey. It compares the different regulatory and control mechanisms that are applied in each of these countries and identifies lessons learned and ‘best practice’ in the cultivation, production and regulatory mechanisms for licit opium poppy. Details: Unpublished report, 2001. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 13, 2018 at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266277621_AN_ANALYSIS_OF_LICIT_OPIUM_POPPY_CULTIVATION_INDIA_AND_TURKEY Year: 2001 Country: Asia URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266277621_AN_ANALYSIS_OF_LICIT_OPIUM_POPPY_CULTIVATION_INDIA_AND_TURKEY Shelf Number: 116674 Keywords: Drug ControlNarcoticsOpium Poppy Cultivation |
Author: Mansfield, David Title: Development in a Drugs Environment: A Strategic Approach to 'Alternative Development' Summary: Whichever way we look at it Alternative Development is at a crossroads: there is confusion over language and terms, concerns over the technical capacity of implementing bodies, and the growing view that the attribution of both drug control and development outcomes to alternative development projects remains opaque. The result is funding for alternative development projects continues to fall. There are certainly many in the wider development community who question how alternative development differs from conventional rural development and whether the inclusion of key cross cutting issues such as poverty, gender, the environment and conflict have actually manifested in improvements in the lives and livelihoods of primary stakeholders. Without more robust evidence of the impact of these programmes on both human development indicators and illicit drug crop cultivation, as well as improved confidence in the effectiveness of those bodies that have traditionally designed and implemented alternative development programmes, it is unlikely that levels of funding for the kind of discrete area based alternative development projects of the past will actually recover. More recently in Afghanistan, and increasingly in other source countries in Asia, the term ‘alternative development’ has been substituted with ‘Alternative Livelihoods’ with little recognition of the conceptual and operational differences. Elsewhere terms such as ‘Sustainable Alternative Livelihoods’ and indeed ‘Sustainable Livelihoods’ itself are sneaking into the rubric of drug control agencies as they search for a common language and legitimacy with the development community. Even the term ‘Alternative Development’ still means ‘many things to many people’. For those whose performance is measured simply in terms of reductions in the amount of opium poppy and coca grown, alternative development is seen as simply as the ‘carrot’ to the eradication ‘stick’, and the provision of development assistance is contingent on reductions in illicit drug crop cultivation. For others, reductions in illicit drug crop cultivation are an externality of a development process (that includes extending good governance and the rule of law) aimed at achieving sustainable improvements in lives and livelihoods. In terms of both process and the primary goal there is still much disagreement with regard to alternative development. However, there is a danger of ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’. Alternative development projects have achieved both development and drug control outcomes in specific geographical areas where more conventional development agencies are often not even present, despite the prevailing levels of poverty and conflict. For those who have experienced the low levels of literacy, high incidence of food insecurity, infant mortality and malnutrition that typically exist in illicit drug crop producing areas, as well as the lack of governance and prevailing levels of violence and intimidation from both state and non-state actors, arguments about the relatively high income of opium poppy and coca growing households seems rather inappropriate and ill informed. To this group the subsequent improvements in the income and quality of life of communities that often accompany alternative development projects at the same time as levels of opium poppy or coca cultivation fall are obvious, even if they might have been documented better or achieved more cost effectively. Given the concentration of illicit drug crops in marginal areas where weak governance, conflict and poverty prevail it is clear that the current impasse on the role of the development community in improving the lives and livelihoods of those residing in illicit drug crop producing areas has to be overcome so that both development and drug control communities can meet their different but interrelated objectives. Yet, there is a need to recognise that greater engagement by the development community will not be achieved by launching a new marketing campaign and trying to sell what is already considered a faulty product more effectively, or simply tinkering with the name in the hope that non one notices the ‘alternative development’ product has actually passed its ‘sell-by-date’. Instead, there is a need for the proponents of alternative development to learn from the wider development community in terms of conceptual frameworks, understanding the nature of change in rural livelihoods, and in particular, to recognise that the more traditional project type intervention has its limitations and that a wider-sectoral approach is required to build an enabling policy environment for development efforts to have make a real impact. At the same time, there is a need for the development community to move way from what can be a rather unsophisticated and outdated model of the ‘profit maximising illicit drug farmer’ and further its understanding of the complex role that illicit drug crops play in the livelihoods of the rural poor. This Discussion paper is aimed at promoting just such an understanding between both communities. Indeed, it is targeted at a wider development community that has often been at best suspicious of the illicit drug issues and a drug control community that has often proved insular and unable to draw on the lessons learned from the implementation of more conventional rural development interventions over the last decade. The paper is intended to provoke both communities into a more constructive dialogue: a dialogue that is aimed more at developing a deeper understanding of the considerable overlap between drug control and development agendas; and that promotes partnership – no longer based on the distinct and rather artificial discipline of ‘alternative development’ in which neither development nor drug control community have ownership – but based on agreed principles of integrating an analysis of the causes of illicit drug crop cultivation into conventional development programmes, a common understanding of how development outcomes can translate into drug control achievements, and an ethos of doing ‘development in a drugs environment’. Details: Eschborn/Germany: Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), 2006. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 9, 2010 at: http://www.davidmansfield.org/data/Alternative_Development/GTZ/strategic_approach.pdf Year: 2006 Country: Asia URL: http://www.davidmansfield.org/data/Alternative_Development/GTZ/strategic_approach.pdf Shelf Number: 120269 Keywords: Drug ControlNarcoticsOpiumPoppy Cultivation |
Author: Mansfield, David Title: Governance, Security and Economic Growth: The Determinants of Opium Poppy Cultivation in the Districts of Jurm and Baharak in Badakhshan Summary: As this report shows the evidence from the centre of Baharak district in Badakhshan is that given the right conditions many households can prosper despite ceasing or significantly reducing opium poppy cultivation. Opium poppy remains an input intensive crop. Not only does land have to be set aside for its cultivation but also water, seed, farm power and most importantly of all labour. When the opportunity cost of allocating these inputs to opium production rise due to the growth in the market for high value vegetable production, the recovery of livestock prices and significant increases in wage labour opportunities, households can make the shift from opium poppy cultivation to legal economic opportunities without enduring economic and political shocks. For instance, it no longer looks as economically attractive to allocate family members to work on such a labour intensive crop as opium poppy cultivation when salaried employment and consistent wage labour opportunities are available, particularly when opium prices are falling. Neither does it make sense to hire a workforce for opium poppy cultivation to substitute for this now gainfully employed family labour given relatively high wage labour rates. Instead it is rational to cultivate less labour intensive crops that can be managed largely utilising the remaining supply of household labour. Of course it is even more conducive to the household if these crops fetch good prices, attract traders to purchase them at the farmgate and obtain advance payments, as is currently the case in central Baharak. Land can also be allocated to fodder crops that are again less labour intensive and serve to increase the value added of livestock which has seen a recovery in prices and market size. As such, combining wage labour opportunities with high value cash crops and livestock production not only has the potential to generate a higher return to household resources but can also offer greater security than simply cultivating opium poppy. Of course in this scenario ‘security’ is not only a function of the different income streams available which act as a safety net against crop or market failure, but also a consequence of the household operating within the ‘rule of law’ and therefore less vulnerable to the potential excesses of both state and non-state actors. In this situation a household will also more often than not be a recipient of public goods such as education, health, physical infrastructure, as well as physical security which all serve to improve economic opportunities and extend social contract between the state and community. As experience in other former opium poppy growing areas in countries like Thailand and Pakistan illustrate once these gains are consolidated farmers are unlikely to return to opium production even when famgate prices increase significantly. However, this paper also shows that the opportunity cost of allocating household resources to opium poppy is not rising for all, indeed these development are typically highly localised and concentrated around central Baharak. In contrast in the more remote areas of Baharak district and across much of the neighbouring district of Jurm, circumstances are such that agricultural commodity and labour markets remain constrained. Limited natural assets, such as land and water, combined with poor roads and high transportation costs preclude the shift to high value vegetable production. Some recovery in livestock is taking place but the benefits of this tend to be concentrated amongst the relatively wealthy who have often restocked their herds using the proceeds from their opium crop. In these areas opium poppy persists all be it at lower levels than in 2006. In the more remote parts of the district of Baharak there is potential for opium to cease once infrastructure is improved, and more marginal households restock their herds and gain better access to labour markets through a growth in labour demand and/or skill development. Wage labour opportunities in Iran will continue to be seen as an important safety valve for households who cannot meet their basic needs by participating in local agricultural and labour markets. In the district of Jurm the prognosis is more bleak. The biggest constraint on reducing opium poppy in this area is the insecurity and poor governance that is currently stymieing the growth of the legal economy. Here the political and financial interests of competing commanders will only serve to continue high levels of dependency on opium production and prevent households making sustainable shifts to legal economic options. There is a danger that the growing insecurity in the centre of the district has a knock on effect in the upper areas in which currently the local commanders remain relatively inactive. In the centre of Jurm the uncertain political and security environment is already impacting on investment decisions. Attempts by the local and central authorities to reduce opium poppy cultivation are viewed with disdain and seen as part of a wider attempt by local commanders to reinforce their political and economic grip over the area. It is also impacting on the legal economy reducing disposable income and subsequently sales and employment opportunities. This in turn is further weakening the relationship between the state and local communities. As such there is a real risk that the political need for short-term results on levels of cultivation could undermine attempts to deliver sustainable development and counter narcotics outcomes. In such an environment greater focus needs to be given to stabilising the security and governance environment through anti corruption measures and extending service delivery, as well as promoting economic growth. It would appear that counter narcotics efforts such as eradication efforts may well have to wait until these pre-requisites are put in place and farmers have viable alternatives to opium poppy cultivation. Details: Germany: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), 2007. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 9, 2010 at: http://www.gtz.de/de/dokumente/en-eod-report-Badakhshan.pdf Year: 2007 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.gtz.de/de/dokumente/en-eod-report-Badakhshan.pdf Shelf Number: 120270 Keywords: EconomicsNarcoticsOpiumPoppy Cultivation |
Author: Transnational Institute Title: Alternative Development or Business as Usual? China's Opium Substitution Policy in Burma and Laos Summary: A significant part of opium and its derivative heroin on the market in China originates from the ‘Golden Triangle’ – roughly the area that spans northern Burma, Thailand and Laos. It supplies a large number of injecting drugs users in China, and is considered a major security concern by the Chinese authorities. To counter this threat, the Chinese government have launched opium substitution programmes in northern Burma and Laos. The schemes, promoting agricultural investments by Chinese companies, have seen a dramatic increase in recent years. They include large-scale rubber plantations and other crops such as sugarcane, tea and corn. Serious concerns arise regarding the longterm economic benefits and costs of rubber development for poor upland villagers. Although some economic benefits are derived from rubber development, the villagers enjoying these new resource revenue streams are not the poorest. Wealthier farmers with savings and better social networks can more easily tap benefits; hence socio-economic gaps are developing in the communities. Without access to capital and land to become involved in rubber concessions, upland farmers practicing swidden cultivation (many of whom are (ex-) poppy growers) have few alternatives but to work as wage labourers on agricultural concessions. They are forced to accede to government relocation programmes or to economic factors, as they have no other means of income. Conclusions and recommendations: The huge increase in Chinese agricultural concessions in Burma and Laos is driven by China’s opium crop substitution programme, offering subsidies and tax waivers for Chinese companies; China’s focus is on integrating the local economy of the border regions of Burma and Laos into the regional market through bilateral relations with government and military authorities across the border; In Burma large-scale rubber concessions is the only method operating. Initially informal smallholder arrangements were the dominant form of cultivation in Laos, but the topdown coercive model is gaining prevalence; The poorest of the poor, including many (ex-) poppy farmers, benefit least from these investments. They are losing access to land and forest, being forcibly relocated to the lowlands, left with few viable options for survival; New forms of conflict are arising from Chinese large-scale investments abroad. Related land dispossession has wide implications on drug production and trade, as well as border stability; and Investments related to opium substitution plans should be carried out in a more sustainable, transparent, accountable and equitable fashion with a community-based approach. They should respect traditional land rights and communities’ customs. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2010. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Drug Policy Briefing No. 33: Accessed December 1, 2010 at: http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/brief33.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Asia URL: http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/brief33.pdf Shelf Number: 120333 Keywords: Drug ControlDrug PolicyOpium |
Author: Kego, Walter Title: Europe and Afghan Heroin Summary: As the war in Afghanistan reaches the decade mark, the effort to stem opium poppy cultivation has taken a turn for the worse. International efforts to defeat the Taliban have tapered into a regressed response to the problem that drugs play in this conflict. Anti-drug campaigns are floundering as opium prices rise, which acts as an incitement to continued and renewed farming. This could potentially further destabilize the previous efforts in a war in which there is a desperate need to show progress. Perhaps Europe can recognize a problem of which they are a part and find an alternative way to effectively address the issue at hand. Details: Stockholm: The Institute for Security & Development Policy, 2011. 2p. Source: Internet Resource: ISDP Policy Brief, No. 57: Accessed April 14, 2011 at: http://www.isdp.eu/images/stories/isdp-main-pdf/2011_kego-hedlund_europe-and-afghan-heroin.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.isdp.eu/images/stories/isdp-main-pdf/2011_kego-hedlund_europe-and-afghan-heroin.pdf Shelf Number: 121339 Keywords: Drug TraffickingFinancing TerrorismHeroin (Afghanistan)Opium |
Author: Mansfield, David Title: Poppy Free Provinces: A Measure or a Target? Summary: This report focuses on the concept of “poppy free” provinces — an increasingly important metric by which performance in counter-narcotics in Afghanistan is currently being judged. It is based on the fourth consecutive year of fieldwork conducted in the provinces of Nangarhar and Ghor under the auspices of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit’s Applied Thematic Research into Water Management, Livestock and the Opium Economy project, known in short as “WOL” and funded by the European Commission. The report does not offer a synthesis of the previous years of fieldwork undertaken, although clearly it draws on the body of knowledge established by this work. The report details the processes by which two provinces achieved what the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has come to refer to as “poppy free” status1 in the 2007/08 growing season. The two provinces are Nangarhar in the East of the country and Ghor in the central region. These are two markedly different provinces, not only from the perspective of the resources that the population have at their disposal, but also in the scale and depth of their engagement in the production and trade in opium. Matching the contrast in resources and engagement in opium poppy cultivation is the way in which Nangarhar and Ghor achieved their “poppy free” status in 2007/08 and the subsequent impact on the socioeconomic and political situation in these two provinces. The report contrasts the way in which these two provinces became opium poppy free in the 2007/08 growing season. It highlights the proactive role played by the Governor of Nangarhar in banning opium poppy: his use of coercion, persuasion and tribal structures to create an environment in which the population was not confident that there was sufficient unity within the tribes to prevent the opium crop being destroyed were they to plant it. The report also outlines how early eradication in key districts served to increase this perception of risk and, when combined with a successful attempt by the local authorities to create the impression that the heightened profile of the Unites States military in the province was primarily aimed at counter-narcotics rather than counterinsurgency, succeeded in deterring planting across Nangarhar. The report highlights how the situation in Ghor could not be more different. Here, the negligible levels of cultivation were the consequence of environmental and market forces. It shows how low opium yields and falling farm-gate prices have acted against opium poppy and, in the wake of dramatic increases in wheat prices in the 2007/08 growing season, have made it irrational to cultivate opium poppy. The reports shows that those who persist with cultivation typically do so because they have no other sources of cash income. Details: Kabul: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, 2009. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 19, 2011 at: http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/documents/AREU_PoppyFreeProvinces_MeasureOrTarget.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/documents/AREU_PoppyFreeProvinces_MeasureOrTarget.pdf Shelf Number: 121398 Keywords: Drug PolicyNarcotics ControlOpium Poppy Cultivation |
Author: Eventon, Ross Title: Russia, the U.S. and Drugs in Afghanistan Summary: The U.S.-Russian relationship throughout Central Asia is one of intense rivalry, albeit with occasional politically opportune collaboration. As the two powers pursue their own political and military objectives, the relationship can often appear contradictory and confused, as co-operation exists simultaneously alongside competition, involving vocal condemnation and criticism. This rivalry is especially evident in Afghanistan, and particularly in relation to the enormous levels of opium cultivation in that country since the invasion. For both the U.S. and Russia, exploitation of the drugs issue has been an important means of achieving their respective aims. Washington’s proclaimed “war on drugs” is quite transparently an aspect of counter-insurgency and shows little regard for the actual level of drug production. In light of domestic policies, Moscow’s claims of concern with Afghan opium flowing into the country are clearly disingenuous. The “drugs threat” instead serves as a mechanism for increasing Russia’s engagement with Afghanistan and the Central Asian states. As the U.S. seeks to establish a permanent presence, secure the authority of a client state in Afghanistan, and exert control over the future of the region, Moscow is using bilateral and regional mechanisms in an effort to counter Washington and become an influential player in Central Asia. Recent developments suggest that this “New Great Game” is approaching a crucial moment, with significant geo-strategic implications. Details: Oslo, Norway: NOREF (Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre), 2011. Source: Internet Resource, NOREF Report, Accessed on December 6, 2011 at: http://peacebuilding.no/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/86c44fb74d83db259d0f516bc9fc07c7.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://peacebuilding.no/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/86c44fb74d83db259d0f516bc9fc07c7.pdf Shelf Number: 123496 Keywords: AfghanistanIllict DrugsOpiumRussiaUnited States |
Author: Lamanna, Carlo Title: Drug Trafficking and Security Issues in Afghanistan Summary: Drug production in Afghanistan is a problem that for the moment traces directly to the European citizens’ demand for heroin. Opium cultivation and production have a huge role in the Afghan economy, but the magnitude of its trade goes beyond Afghanistan as more than 80% of the export value reaches the drug trafficking networks. Opium and opiates’ traffickers follow three major routes from Afghanistan to Western Europe, among which the route through Pakistan is really a favoured option. In such an economy, there are actors at the village level, traffickers at regional level, and transnational smuggling enterprises, all working in a pattern of corruption to evade regulatory mechanisms. There are security implications for the western countries’ interests that wish for a stable Afghanistan in a stabilized region. The drug trade across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border is not only challenging state control but it is also reinforcing linkages between drug traffickers, criminal groups, and insurgents. Traffickers and insurgents do not necessarily share the same aims, but sometimes it is difficult to draw a clear line of division between them. The ways and means that such networks use to finance insurgency and terrorism in the region through the opiates’ trade require attention and precise strategies to fight them. Eventually, the drug trafficking is a world financial problem. Reducing the drug demand from the markets and eradicating the opiates’ production, as well as disrupting the link between them, require equal attention, and none of them can be underestimated or postponed. President Obama’s counternarcotics policy emphasizes the importance of interdiction and alternative development, and eliminates any U.S. role in eradication efforts. It is the reduction of the belligerent groups’ strength that comes first. Nevertheless, the new strategy also assures the necessary basis for substantial reductions in the size and impacts of the illicit economy in Afghanistan. However, without coordinated mechanisms to fight regional traffickers, the local interdiction efforts could result in unintended consequences of raising the retail price of illegal drugs. Efforts to limit the insurgents’ funds must include measures against money laundering that focus on the global. It is sensible to look forward to having the US and EU in a complementary role to fight the wide and fragmented drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Europe, in which transnational police operations can parallel and gradually take over the current military operations in Afghanistan. Details: United Kingdom: Royal College of Defence Studies, 2010. 38p. Source: Seaford House Paper 2010: Internet Resource: Accessed February 10, 2012 at http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/B75962C5-EB34-4189-83AF-3E381C75FC59/0/SHP2010LAMANNA.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/B75962C5-EB34-4189-83AF-3E381C75FC59/0/SHP2010LAMANNA.pdf Shelf Number: 124074 Keywords: Border Security (Afghanistan and Pakistan)Drug Control Policy (Afghanistan)Drug Trafficking (Afghanistan)Opium |
Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Title: Opiate Flows Through Northern Afghanistan and Central Asia: A Threat Assessment Summary: This report describes the illicit trade of opiates along the Northern route from northern Afghanistan to Central Asia up to the borders of the Russian Federation. It has been organized in three sections. The first section begins by addressing the dynamics of trafficking in northern Afghanistan, including the groups involved, the volumes of opiate flows and opiate consumption, as well as the share that southern Afghanistan production takes in Northern route trafficking. A second section explores trafficking dynamics through Central Asia, including the methods involved and the groups managing the trade. Lastly, the final section briefly analyzes the regional capacity to respond to the threat of Afghan opiates. For the purposes of this study, ‘northern Afghanistan’ refers to both north Afghanistan and north-east Afghanistan, following the regional grouping of provinces used in the UNODC annual Opium Poppy Survey. The north Afghanistan region consists of the provinces of Baghlan, Samangan, Faryab, Sari-pul, Jawzjan, Bamyan and Balkh, while north-east Afghanistan consists of Kunduz, Badakhshan and Takhar provinces. Details: Geneva: UNODC, 2012. 106p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 15, 2012 at: http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Studies/Afghanistan_northern_route_2012_web.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Asia URL: http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Studies/Afghanistan_northern_route_2012_web.pdf Shelf Number: 125301 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug TraffickingOpiates (Asia)OpiumOrganized Crime |
Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Title: •Thematic Evaluation of the Technical Assistance Provided to Afghanistan by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Summary: For two centuries, Afghanistan was a buffer zone between contending international powers rather than a nation State. Resistance to the Soviet invasion during the Cold War and the following acute civil conflict have, over the past 30 years, wreaked havoc with vital infrastructure and weakened the precarious social contract between centre and periphery. Afghanistan today produces 93 per cent of the world’s opium and poses enormous challenges to reconstruction and state-building. Among the interrelated challenges are corruption, weak governance and poor security. The following pages report on the results of an in-depth thematic evaluation of the response of UNODC to those challenges over the period from December 2001 to March 2007. This is the first technical assistance evaluation of a country programme conducted by UNODC. The present evaluation examines, in turn, efforts to build the capacity of Afghanistan government agencies via five subprogrammes: alternative livelihoods, rule of law, law enforcement, drug demand reduction and illicit crop monitoring. The reports include the following: Volume 1: Consolidated Evaluation Report on the Technical Assistance Provided to Afghanistan by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; Volume 2: Alternative Livelihoods Programme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan; Volume 3: Law Enforcement Programme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan; Volume 4: Rule of Law Programme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan; Volume 5: Drug Demand Reduction Programme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan; Volume 6: Illicit Crop Monitoring Programme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan. Details: Vienna: UNODC, 2008. 6 volumes Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 17, 2012 at: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/evaluation/thematic-evaluation-reports.html Year: 2008 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/evaluation/thematic-evaluation-reports.html Shelf Number: 115370 Keywords: Drug ControlDrugs and Crime (Afghanistan)OpiumRule of Law |
Author: Yong-an, Zhang Title: Asia, International Drug Trafficking, and U.S.-China Counternarcotics Cooperation Summary: The end of the Cold War may have heralded an end to certain tensions, but among other unforeseen effects it also precipitated a significant increase in the flow of illegal drugs across traditional national boundaries. International travel has become easier in an increasingly borderless world, and―although international drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) have never respected national boundaries―newly globalized markets for drug production and exportation, along with changing patterns of consumption in some societies, have had an enormous impact on drug trafficking. In short, the global market for illicit drugs, and the capacity of providers to deliver to this market, is expanding inexorably around the world. What was once called “the American disease” has become a global one. The international community first took an interest in the Asian drug trade at the beginning of the 20th century. The Shanghai Opium Commission in 1909 was the first attempt at regulating drug trade in the region, as countries including the United States, Great Britain, China, Japan, and Russia convened to discuss the growing trafficking of opium. Since then, numerous measures have been adopted by individual countries and collectively to curb the illegal drug trade. This has been especially true since the launch of the “war on drugs.” In spite of these enhanced efforts, the global opiate market has nevertheless exhibited increased growth since 1980. Data gathered by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicate global opium production increased by close to 80 percent between 1998 and 2009. The UNODC reports that nearly all of the world’s illicit opium and heroin production is concentrated in “Afghanistan, South-East Asia (mostly Myanmar) and Latin America (Mexico and Colombia). Afghanistan stands out among this group, accounting for around 90 percent of global illicit opium production in recent years.” Upwards of 90 percent of the global heroin and morphine production is provided by Afghanistan and Myanmar. Clearly, the global opiate market has neither been eliminated nor significantly reduced since 1998. Asian drug trafficking remains a serious threat to both China and the United States. In order to confront this common threat, since 1985 China and the United States have taken numerous steps to cooperate in the interdiction of cross-border drug trafficking. Together, they have made outstanding achievements in the prevention of Asian drug trafficking and in the eradication of opium poppy cultivation in the Golden Triangle region that comprises parts of Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Bilateral cooperation, however, has not been wholly successful, and Beijing and Washington face a daunting set of challenges regarding cross-border drug trafficking. The two nations must reconsider both new and old challenges in both regional and global contexts in their efforts to promote counternarcotics cooperation. This paper will assess the various threats and challenges that China and the United States face from international Asian drug trafficking. It will examine the historical roots of counternarcotics cooperation between China and the United States, will analyze the limits of this bilateral cooperation, and will provide policy recommendations for the two governments on how to better confront these threats. Details: Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution 2012. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 30, 2013 at: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/2/drug%20trafficking%20zhang/02_drug_trafficking_zhang_paper.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Asia URL: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/2/drug%20trafficking%20zhang/02_drug_trafficking_zhang_paper.pdf Shelf Number: 127442 Keywords: Border SecurityDrug Abuse and Crime (Asia)Drug TraffickingOpium |
Author: EastWest Institute. Joint U.S. - Russia Working Group on Afghan Narcotrafficking Title: Afghan Narcotrafficking: A Joint Threat Assessment Summary: Despite the most recent tensions in the bilateral relationship between Russia and the United States, cooperation on counternarcotics has endured, developing slowly but steadily. The EastWest Institute’s report Afghan Narcotrafficking: A Joint Threat Assessment focuses on the serious threats these two countries face from the flow of drugs from Afghanistan and its corrosive impact on Afghanistan itself. The contributors to the report point out that preventing an explosion in this opium trade is a prerequisite for improving the security of Afghanistan and its neighbors after the withdrawal of foreign troops next year. Afghan Narcotrafficking: A Joint Threat Assessment is a product of the Russian and American experts who participated in a working group convened by EWI. Leaders in this field from both countries, including representatives of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, provided briefings and other assistance to the group. According to EWI Senior Associate Jacqueline McLaren Miller, the project’s main coordinator, “This report demonstrates that cooperation between Russia and the United States is still possible when both countries are willing to focus on a common challenge.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov echoed the same sentiments at the February 2, 2013 Munich Security Conference when he stated the need for “closer cooperation with the U.S. on Afghanistan.” There are about 30,000 heroin-related deaths in Russia every year, and most of the heroin comes from Afghanistan. Cooperation between the two countries is necessary to stem predicted growth of opium production in a post-2014 Afghanistan. The report includes a clear warning: “As NATO and U.S. troops prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan, which is still struggling with a highly volatile security situation, weak governance, and major social and economic problems, the size of the opium economy and opiate trafficking are likely to increase and pose an even greater challenge to regional and international security.” This paper will be followed shortly by a Joint Policy Assessment report, which will offer specific policy suggestions for both Russia and the United States to curtail the flow of opiates from Afghanistan. Details: New York: EastWest Institute, 2013. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Report 2013-1: Accessed April 12, 2013 at: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20526994/JTA%20final%204-11.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Afghanistan URL: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20526994/JTA%20final%204-11.pdf Shelf Number: 128348 Keywords: Drug TraffickingNarcotics (Afghanistan)NarcotraffickingOpium |
Author: Palaung Women's Organization Title: Still Imprisoned: Opium cultivation soars in Palaung areas under Burma’s new regime Summary: Almost one year after Burma’s long-awaited elections were held in November 2010, Palaung communities in northern Shan State are suffering from the effects of an even greater upsurge in opium cultivation than in previous years. Local paramilitary leaders, some now elected into Burma’s new parliament, are being allowed to cultivate and profit from drugs in return for helping the regime suppress ethnic resistance forces in Burma’s escalating civil war. As a result, drug addiction has escalated in the Palaung area, tearing apart families and communities. Burma’s drug problems are set to worsen unless there is genuine political reform that addresses the political aspirations of Burma’s ethnic minority groups. Research carried out by Palaung Women’s Organization in Namkham Township shows that: •Opium cultivation across 15 villages in Namkham Township has increased by a staggering 78.58% within two years. •12 villages in the same area, which had not previously grown opium, have started to grow opium since 2009. •A signify cant number of these villages are under the control of government paramilitary “anti-insurgency” forces, which are directly profiting from the opium trade. •The most prominent militia leader and drug-lord in the area, “Pansay” Kyaw Myint, from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, was elected as an MP for Namkham in November 2010; he promised voters that they could grow opium freely for 5 years if they voted for him. •Government troops, police and militia continue to openly tax opium farmers, and to collect bribes from drug addicts in exchange for their release from custody. •Drug addiction in Palaung communities has spiraled out of control. In one Palaung village, PWO found that 91% of males aged 15 and over were addicted to drugs. Drug addiction is causing huge problems for families, with women and children bearing the burden of increased poverty, crime and violence. Details: Mae Sot, Thailand: Palaung Women's Organization, 2011. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 4, 2013 at: http://www.burmapartnership.org/2011/10/still-imprisoned/ Year: 2011 Country: Thailand URL: http://www.burmapartnership.org/2011/10/still-imprisoned/ Shelf Number: 128929 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug-Related ViolenceNarcotics (Thailand)Opium |
Author: Mansfield, David Title: Eyes Wide Shut: Counter-Narcotics in Transition Summary: It is now clear that the production and trade of opiates will have a significant influence on not only the economic, political and security landscape, but even the physical terrain of post-Transition Afghanistan. Levels of opium poppy cultivation are already rising; estimated cultivated area rose by 18 percent in 2012 and is likely to rise significantly over the next few years. And this trend may intensify further as politico-military actors make deals and form coalitions in response to the 2014 handover of security responsibility from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Even while NATO forces remain, the coercive power of the Afghan state has diminished in parts of provinces previously described as "models" for counter-narcotics efforts. In provinces such as Helmand and Nangarhar, there is likely to be a return to widespread opium poppy cultivation in the more accessible and fertile areas as NATO and the ANSF cease to operate outside the areas where the state has a history of control. As security forces withdraw, the state has either relinquished control of such territory to anti-government elements (AGEs), or delegated it to local power brokers who may have little interest in reducing opium poppy cultivation, and may even encourage it. Further increases in cultivation are also likely as opium poppy returns in greater amounts to some of the provinces previously deemed "poppy free," such as Ghor, Laghman and even Balkh. Perhaps more worrying is the potential for an expansion of opium into previously uncultivated areas of desert land in the South. The adoption of new technologies-such as deep wells, herbicides and solar power-will likely aid cultivation in these areas, reducing the cost of inputs and increasing productivity. Meanwhile, ill-sequenced and poorly-targeted counter-narcotics and development efforts coupled with a continuing global demand for opiates provide additional incentives for production. Increasing levels of cultivation have wider implications for the political economy of the country. In an increasingly contested rural space, narcotics and counter-narcotics policies are both likely to be a major source of patronage and division. The Taliban have a history of actively encouraging opium poppy cultivation as part of a strategy to gain the support of the rural population and highlight the weakness of provincial administration. By provoking crop destruction as part of counter-narcotics efforts, this strategy also increases rural antipathy to the state and its international partners. The myriad different local security forces operating under the sometimes loose supervision of Afghan and international military forces are less coherent. In some areas of Kandahar and Helmand the Afghan Local Police (ALP) are pursuing an aggressive counter-narcotics effort, conscious that they may lose their salaries and patronage if they do not. In other parts of these provinces as well as in Balkh, farmers allege that members of the ALP and even the Afghan Border Police either benefit from poppy cultivation or grow it themselves. Details: Kabul, Afghanistan: Afghanistan Research And Evaluation Unit, 2013. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Briefing Paper Series: Accessed April 23, 2014 at: http://www.areu.org.af/Uploads/EditionPdfs/Opium%20BP.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.areu.org.af/Uploads/EditionPdfs/Opium%20BP.pdf Shelf Number: 132135 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug Control PolicyNarcoticsOpiumPoppy Cultivation |
Author: Rosen, Liana Title: Afghanistan: Drug Trafficking and the 2014 Transition Summary: Afghanistan is the world's primary source of opium poppy cultivation and opium and heroin production, as well as a major global source of cannabis (marijuana) and cannabis resin (hashish). Drug trafficking, a long-standing feature of Afghanistan's post-Taliban political economy, is linked to corruption and insecurity, and provides a source of illicit finance for non-state armed groups. Based on recent production and trafficking trends, the drug problem in Afghanistan appears to be worsening-just as the U.S. government finalizes plans for its future relationship with the government of Afghanistan in 2015 and beyond and reduces its counternarcotics operational presence in the country to Kabul, the national capital. As coalition combat operations in Afghanistan draw to a close in 2014, and as the full transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces is achieved, some Members of the 113th Congress have expressed concern regarding the future direction and policy prioritization of U.S. counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan in light of diminishing resources and an uncertain political and security environment in 2015 and beyond. According to the U.S. Counternarcotics Strategy for Afghanistan, released in late 2012, the U.S. government envisions a counternarcotics policy future that results in "two simultaneous and parallel transfers of responsibility." Not only does it envision the transfer of security responsibility to Afghan forces, but also the transfer of counternarcotics programming responsibilities and law enforcement operational activities to the Afghan government. Assuming a reduced U.S. security presence and limited civilian mobility throughout the country, the U.S. government is also increasingly emphasizing a regional approach to combating Afghan drugs. Although some counternarcotics efforts, including eradication and alternative development programming, are already implemented by the government of Afghanistan or by local contractors, others may require a two- to five-year time horizon, or potentially longer, before a complete transition would be feasible, according to Administration officials. Some counternarcotics initiatives are only in their infancy, including the Defense Department's plans to establish a new Regional Narcotics Analysis and Illicit Trafficking Task Force (RNAIT-TF). Other activities, particularly those that required a significant presence at the local and provincial levels, are anticipated to be reduced or limited in scope. The 113th Congress continues to monitor drug trafficking trends in Afghanistan and evaluate U.S. policy responses. Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives held hearings on the topic in early 2014 and included provisions in FY2014 appropriations (P.L. 113-76) that limit the scope of and resources devoted to future counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has also identified narcotics as a "critical issue" for policy makers. This report describes key U.S. counternarcotics programs in Afghanistan in the context of the 2014 transition and analyzes policy issues related to these programs for Congress to consider as policy makers examine the drug problem in Afghanistan. The report's Appendix contains historical figures and tables on trends in Afghan drug cultivation, production, and trafficking. Details: Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2014. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: R43540: Accessed May 19, 2014 at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R43540.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R43540.pdf Shelf Number: 132395 Keywords: Drug Law EnforcementDrug PolicyDrug TraffickingIllicit Drugs (Afghanistan)NarcoticsOpium |
Author: Kramer, Tom Title: Bouncing Back: Relapse in the Golden Triangle Summary: The illicit drug market in the Golden Triangle - Burma, Thailand and Laos - and in neighbouring India and China has undergone profound changes. This report documents those changes in great detail, based on information gathered on the ground in difficult circumstances by a group of dedicated local researchers. After a decade of decline, opium cultivation has doubled again and there has also been a rise in the production and consumption of ATS - especially methamphetamines. Drug control agencies are under constant pressure to apply policies based on the unachievable goal to make the region drug free by 2015. This report argues for drug policy changes towards a focus on health, development, peace building and human rights. Reforms to decriminalise the most vulnerable people involved could make the region's drug policies far more sustainable and cost-effective. Such measures should include abandoning disproportionate criminal sanctions, rescheduling mild substances, prioritising access to essential medicines, shifting resources from law enforcement to social services, alternative development and harm reduction, and providing evidence-based voluntary treatment services for those who need them. The aspiration of a drug free ASEAN in 2015 is not realistic and the policy goals and resources should be redirected towards a harm reduction strategy for managing - instead of eliminating - the illicit drug market in the least harmful way. In view of all the evidence this report presents about the bouncing back of the opium economy and the expanding ATS market, plus all the negative consequences of the repressive drug control approaches applied so far, making any other choice would be irresponsible. Details: Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, 2014. 116p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 16, 2014: http://www.tni.org/briefing/bouncing-back Year: 2014 Country: Asia URL: http://www.tni.org/briefing/bouncing-back Shelf Number: 132462 Keywords: Drug Control Drug MarketsDrug PolicyIllicit DrugsOpium |
Author: Kachin Women's Association Thailand Title: Silent Offensive: How Burma Army strategies are fuelling the Kachin drug crisis Summary: "Silent Offensive" by the Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT) reveals how the Burma Army is allowing its local militia to grow opium and produce heroin and other drugs in exchange for fighting against the KIA. As Burmese troops and their allies have progressively seized control of KIA areas, drug production has been increasing. The main opium growing areas in Kachin State are now in Chipwi and Waingmaw townships, under the control of the Burma Army and its local Border Guard Forces led by Zakhung Ting Ying, a National Assembly MP. In northern Shan State, opium is booming in areas under the Burma Army and thirteen government militia forces, four of whose leaders are MPs in the Shan State Assembly. Opium, heroin and methamphetamines are flooding from these government-controlled areas into Kachin communities, worsening existing problems of drug abuse, particularly among youth. It is estimated that about one third of students in Myitkyina and Bhamo universities are injecting drug users. The report details the harrowing impacts of the drug crisis on women, who struggle to support their families while husbands and sons sell off household property and steal to feed their addiction. Frustrated with the authorities' lack of political will to deal with the drug problem, women are taking a lead among local communities in setting up their own programs to combat drugs. KWAT critiques UNODC and other international donors for not focusing on the role of the war, and particularly the anti-insurgency policies of the government, in fuelling the drug problem in Burma. KWAT urges all stakeholders to focus on finding a just political settlement to the conflict as an urgent priority in tackling the drug crisis. Details: Chiang Mai, Thailand: Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT), 2014. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 15, 2014 at: http://www.kachinwomen.com/images/7Oct14Report/silent_offensive_drug_report_english.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Burma URL: http://www.kachinwomen.com/images/7Oct14Report/silent_offensive_drug_report_english.pdf Shelf Number: 133914 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionHeroinIllegal DrugsNarcotics (Burma)Opium |
Author: Kramer, Tom Title: The Current State of Counternarcotics Policy and Drug Reform Debates in Myanmar Summary: Key Findings - Myanmar is the world's second largest producer of opium after Aghanistan. Following a decade of decline, cultivation has more than doubled since 2006. The production and use of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) is also rising. - Most of the opium is turned into heroin and exported via neighboring countries, especially to China. - Decades of civil war and military rule have stimulated drug production and consumption, and marginalized ethnic communities. - Myanmar has high levels of injecting drug users infected with HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. - Drug policies in Myanmar are repressive and outdated, with an ineffective focus on arresting drug users and eradicating poppy fields. - The central government is unable to provide quality treatment for drug users. Past political repression and human rights violations by the military government caused an international boycott which prevented international donors from providing assistance. - The reform process by the new quasi-civilian government includes both a peace process to end the civil war and a review of the country's drug laws, raising hope for more effective and humane drug policies. Policy Recommendations - Myanmar's drug policies should shift focus and prioritize the provision of services for drug users and promote alternative livelihoods for opium growing communities. - Drug-related legislation should decriminalize drug use, reduce sentences for other drug-related offenses, and allow space for needle exchange programs. - The government should expand harm reduction projects and provide voluntary treatment programs for drug users. - The government should formulate a strategic plan to prioritize alternative development programs. Eradication of poppy farms should not take place unless people have sufficient access to alternative livelihoods. As such, China's opium substitution policy should not continue in its present form. - Affected communities, especially drug users and opium farmers, need to be involved in drug policy making. - More attention should be paid to ATS-related problems, which are largely overlooked by current policies. Details: Washington, DC: Brookings Institute, 2015. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 8, 2015 at: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/04/global-drug-policy/Kramer--Burma-final.pdf?la=en Year: 2015 Country: Burma URL: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/04/global-drug-policy/Kramer--Burma-final.pdf?la=en Shelf Number: 135926 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug PolicyOpium |
Author: Zhang, Sheldon X. Title: A People's War: China's Struggle to Contain its Illicit Drug Problem Summary: Key Findings - China faces a growing problem of illicit drug use. Drug addiction is considered personal failure and addicts are highly stigmatized. Drug addiction does not receive much public sympathy or priority in government funding. - The number of officially registered drug addicts totals about 2.5 million, having increased every year since the government's first annual drug enforcement report in 1998. - In recent years, synthetic drugs such as crystal methamphetamine and ketamine, have become more popular than heroin which was previously dominant. - Illegal opium cultivation no longer exist in China because of strong state control of land use and extensive domestic surveillance. - Myanmar is believed to be the single largest supplier of China's drug market. In 2013, 92.2 percent of the heroin and 95.2 percent of methamphetamine seized in China were traced to Myanmar. - Intravenous drug use significantly contributes to the spread of Hepatitis and HIV. - Drug treatment is mostly administered by the criminal justice system through enrollment in compulsory detoxification centers for first-timers and imprisonment in "education-through-labor" camps for repeat offenders. - More humane approaches are emerging. Methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) clinics have been increasing rapidly across the country and needle exchange programs are being used to prevent the spread of HIV. - The cost of delivering treatment is a key factor in developing effective substance abuse treatment. - Penalties for drug distribution and trafficking remain harsh, and include a frequent use of the death penalty. - Using an extensive network of informants, interdiction efforts focus on major drug trafficking organizations. Policy Recommendations - China should accelerate its experiment with the decriminalization of substance abuse and apply a public health approach to the treatment of addicts. - China needs to promote evidence-based treatment programs based on scientific research and rigorous evaluation. - China needs to establish a reliable drug market forecast system, which combines chemical composition analysis, reports and urine tests of arrested drug abusing offenders, and community informants on illicit drug use trends and pricing information. - China should increase the efficiency of its international collaboration and insulate its counter-narcotic programs from global politics Details: Washington, DC: Brookings Institute, 2015. 15p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 8, 2015 at: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/04/global-drug-policy/A-Peoples-War-final.pdf?la=en Year: 2015 Country: China URL: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/04/global-drug-policy/A-Peoples-War-final.pdf?la=en Shelf Number: 135959 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug OffendersDrug PolicyIllicit DrugsOpium |
Author: Greenfield, Victoria A. Title: Reducing the Cultivation of Opium Poppies in Southern Afghanistan Summary: This report identifies a broad range of factors that drive opium poppy cultivation in southern Afghanistan, the locus of opium production in that country, and assesses the positive and negative effects of programs designed to promote rural development, eradicate opium poppies, or otherwise create incentives for farmers to reduce the cultivation of opium poppies. The authors consider the decision to cultivate opium poppy or other crops from the perspective of farmers who must balance concerns about household income and food sufficiency in the context of socio-economic and environmental factors that, for example, relate to security, eradication, and environmental risks; governance and religiosity; landholding terms and conditions; household circumstances; and agricultural input costs and commodity prices. A factor might encourage or discourage opium poppy cultivation and, in some instances, it could have indeterminate or conflicting effects. Then, the authors examine how rural development, crop eradication, and other programs touch on the factors - and affect poppy cultivation - through mechanisms that include subsidies on fertilizer, high-quality wheat seed, saplings and vines, and farm equipment and facilities; infrastructure investment; training; introduction of non-traditional crops; cash-for-work programs; improved market links; and non-agricultural rural income. On the basis of the assessment, the authors also provide advice on how to design programs that might better serve to reduce the cultivation of opium poppies in southern Afghanistan over the long term. Key Findings -A broad range of socio-economic and other environmental factors, relating to security, eradication, and environmental risks; governance and religiosity; landholding terms and conditions; household circumstances; and agricultural input costs and commodity prices, drive farmers' decisions to cultivate opium poppy or other crops. - Socio-economic and environmental factors that drive farmers' cultivation decisions can present indeterminate or conflicting incentives to produce opium poppy or other crops, depending largely on farmers' relative concerns for household income and food sufficiency and risk tolerance. In consequence, many or most programs can have divergent effects. - Substantial increases in rural incomes must occur before programs to reduce opium poppy cultivation can result in broad-based, sustained declines, but need not suffice. - Near-term, program-led declines in aggregate opium poppy cultivation are highly implausible, but programs can still be directed to foster necessary conditions, especially with regard to incomes, to create better conditions for reducing opium poppy cultivation over the long term. - A modest set of projects holds the most promise for opium poppy reductions, in that they might eventually steer farmers toward legal opportunities. Examples include projects that focus on substantially improving the relative returns of high-value, poppy-competing, legal commodities with well-established accessible markets and boosting rural wages. - The weight of the evidence suggests that a blanket policy of widespread eradication cannot shift southern Afghanistan's rural economy away from illegal cultivation, but does not rule out the possibility that eradication can play a strategic, targeted role, particularly over the longer-term, with advancement of incomes, good governance, and social change. Recommendations - Programs should focus on traditional agricultural products, such as fruit, nuts, grapes, and other perennial orchard crops, with well-established markets; improve product quality through better sorting, grading, and processing; establish stronger links between farms and markets; employ inexpensive, readily available, maintainable, and simple technologies; and try to reach a large enough number of farmers to stimulate and sustain associated support and marketing industries. - Programs should not try to introduce agricultural products new to Afghanistan; rely on complex technologies, especially those that need electricity and other not-yet developed or widely accessible supporting infrastructure; or fail to ensure a local market for the product. - Within the broad contours of that framework, programs that focus on substantially improving the relative returns of high-value, poppy-competing, legal commodities with well-established, accessible markets and boosting rural wages are more likely to shift the rural economy in the direction of legality than other programs over time, as incomes rise. - The weight of the evidence does not support a blanket policy of widespread eradication efforts in Helmand or Kandahar, but it does not rule out a strategic, targeted role, particularly over the longer-term, with advancement of incomes, good governance, and social change. Details: Santa Barbara, CA: RAND, 2015. 266p., app. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 9, 2015 at: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1000/RR1075/RAND_RR1075.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1000/RR1075/RAND_RR1075.pdf Shelf Number: 135987 Keywords: Crop EradicationIllegal Drug TradeIllegal DrugsOpium |
Author: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) Title: Opioid trafficking routes from Asia to Europe Summary: Imported heroin has historically been available in Europe in two forms, the most common being brown heroin (its chemical base form), originating mainly in Afghanistan and other countries in south-west Asia. Less common is white heroin (a salt form), which historically came from south-east Asia but is now also produced in Afghanistan and probably in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan. This region, sometimes referred to as the Golden Crescent, dominates production for the European market Although signs of a decrease in heroin use have been observed recently in some European countries with longer-established heroin use problems, there is also evidence of an increased diversity of opioids appearing on the market. There has also been a marked increase in opium production in Afghanistan, and there is evidence to suggest diversification of heroin and morphine production and innovation in trafficking methods and routes. In the light of these changes, which are impacting on European opioid markets, this analysis reviews the latest evidence on the multiple ways heroin is now trafficked to Europe. Details: Lisbon: EMCDDA, 2015. 7p. Source: Internet Resource: Perspectives on Drugs: Accessed September 16, 2015 at: http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.cfm/att_239691_EN_Opioid%20trafficking%20routes_POD2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Europe URL: http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.cfm/att_239691_EN_Opioid%20trafficking%20routes_POD2015.pdf Shelf Number: 136783 Keywords: Drug Trafficking Heroin Opium |
Author: Mansfield, David Title: The Devil is in the Details: Nangarhar's continued decline into insurgency, violence and widespread drug production Summary: Nangarhar - a province that historically has been one of the major entry points for the capture of Kabul - is in complete disarray. It lies in chaos, riven by a process of political fragmentation that has increased in both pace and severity since the presidential elections and the formation of the National Unity Government (NUG). In fact, there seems little to currently bind the province together given the faltering economy, a reduction in aid flows and the continued disassembling of the political alliances that maintained stability during the early years of Gul Aga Sherzai's governorship. Further catalysing this are the drawdown and subsequent closure of the US-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) - an institution that was, for a period of time, a guarantor for the Afghan state in the province. Indeed, without US military support, and with little direction from Kabul, the Afghan National Defence Security Forces (ANDSF) appear reluctant to leave the sanctuary of their fortified bases. This has led to further losses in government-held territory, particularly in the districts south of the main highway, which runs east to west linking Kabul to the Pakistan border at Torkham. Details: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, 2016. 18p. Source: Internet Resource: Brief: Accessed February 17, 2016 at: http://www.areu.org.af/Uploads/EditionPdfs/1602E%20The%20Devil%20is%20in%20the%20Details%20Nangarhar%20continued%20decline%20into%20insurgency.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.areu.org.af/Uploads/EditionPdfs/1602E%20The%20Devil%20is%20in%20the%20Details%20Nangarhar%20continued%20decline%20into%20insurgency.pdf Shelf Number: 137856 Keywords: Drug-Related ViolenceIllegal DrugsNarcotics Natural Resources OpiumPoppy Cultivation |
Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Title: The Afghan Opiate Trade and Africa - A Baseline Assessment Summary: This report presents a "Baseline Assessment" of the illicit Afghan opiate trafficking situation in Africa, with a focus on heroin trafficking along the southern route out of Afghanistan into, through and from Africa. The main objective of this report is to provide an initial evidence base to support policymakers and law enforcement officials in evaluating the trafficking of Afghan opiates into and across the continent, and to allow the development of effective responses to the issue. While Africa has traditionally been perceived as a transit region for heroin and other drugs moving to destination markets in Europe, North America and Asia, drug trafficking and organized crime is increasingly posing a multifaceted challenge to health, the rule of law and development within the continent itself. Eastern Africa faces many challenges. Natural disasters and civil war, recurrent food shortages and droughts have left many of the region's 180 million people struggling under extreme poverty, and this has been exacerbated by corruption and poor governance. Eastern Africa is increasingly becoming a major landing point for heroin shipped from Afghanistan to Africa via the Indian Ocean. However, despite this increase in maritime smuggling, seizure rates of opiate within Eastern Africa remain low. In Western Africa, drug trafficking, notably via air couriers, has been going on for decades with trafficking networks making extensive use of established courier networks to move drugs, both heroin and cocaine, towards destination markets. This is one of the poorest regions in the world, and in many of the countries in this region governance and law enforcement continues to face challenges as a result of a lack of resources, making the region vulnerable to organised crime. These factors, combined with West Africa's geographic location along major and well established trafficking routes between, for example, South America and Europe, make it attractive to organized crime. Northern Africa appears to be somewhat of an outlier in this analysis of the opiate trade in the African continent, possibly due to being separate from wider drug trafficking trends seen in sub-Saharan Africa, and as a result of being mainly supplied by a sub-section of the Balkan route rather than the southern route. Heroin seizures in Northern Africa are limited and drug addiction rates are generally low. Knowledge of the current drug trafficking picture in Southern Africa is limited. A lack of heroin seizure, purity and consumption data is notable across the region, largely due to a lack of law enforcement capacity and poor data collection processes. While Mozambique and South Africa are known to be major transshipment countries for Afghan opiates, the broader picture of how this affects Southern Africa remains largely unknown. There remains a risk that traffickers will exploit limited law enforcement capacity in Southern Africa, leading to increasing drug trafficking and use, which in turn will further inhibit economic and social development within the region. Comprehensive data on the prices of opiates throughout Africa is currently unavailable. Although heroin commands a reasonably high price in parts of Africa, greater profits can generally be made in other destination markets and it is likely that prices of heroin in Africa remain significantly lower than in other international markets. There is limited data on the purity of heroin trafficked into, through and out of Africa, and there is no evidence to suggest that heroin is produced in Africa itself. Globally, Africa is estimated to be home to 11 per cent of global opiate users and of this 11 per cent of users living in Africa, more than 50 per cent live in Western and Central Africa. While cannabis remains the number one illicit drug used both on the continent and globally, and the only drug produced in Africa for export in large quantities, heroin appears to be becoming more popular in some areas, particularly in Eastern Africa. Synthetic opiates such as Tramadol are also used in Africa and use of such opiates may lead to the use of Afghan opiates, should market conditions for heroin change. Use of Afghan-sourced heroin has wider public health impacts in Africa, including on transmission rates of HIV and Hepatitis C, although data on this area remains limited. Details: Vienna: UNODC, 2016. 78p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 28, 2016 at: https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Afghanistan/Afghan_Opiate_trade_Africa_2016_web.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Africa URL: https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Afghanistan/Afghan_Opiate_trade_Africa_2016_web.pdf Shelf Number: 138840 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug SmugglingDrug TraffickingHeroinMaritime CrimeOpiumOrganized Crime |
Author: Mansfield, David Title: Moving with the Times: How Opium Poppy Cultivation has Adapted to the Changing Environment in Afghanistan Summary: This "watching brief" has described a number of trends with respect to agriculture, land settlement, and opium poppy in several areas of Afghanistan. It highlights two separate but highly related issues. First, what will be farmers' response to changes in technology and agro-economic conditions? While cost-reducing technology such as solar-powered tubewells may allow the cultivation of crops with lower returns than that of opium poppy, will farmers choose to grow these crops or will they stay with poppy? Will they even look to cultivate a second crop of opium poppy in May as some reports from the field suggest? Second, while the new technology has allowed the expansion of agricultural production to former desert areas and supported livelihoods for marginalised households, given Afghanistan's tenuous water resources (leaving aside climate change) and population growth rate, how sustainable is an agriculture that continues to deplete groundwater resources by allowing their use on an essentially "free" basis? Details: Kabul: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, 2016. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Watching Brief: Accessed June 7, 2016 at: http://www.areu.org.af/Uploads/EditionPdfs/1611E%20Moving%20With%20the%20Times.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.areu.org.af/Uploads/EditionPdfs/1611E%20Moving%20With%20the%20Times.pdf Shelf Number: 139288 Keywords: NarcoticsNational ResourcesOpiumOpium Poppy Cultivation |
Author: Macdonald, Virginia Title: Drug Control and Harm Reduction in Thailand Summary: In South East Asia, Thailand is lauded for its success in reversing an HIV epidemic in the 1990s, particularly amongst sex workers. Thailand is also known for its success in significantly reducing opium cultivation, and implementing effective alternative development programmes for opium farmers. However, other aspects of the government's response to illicit drug markets in Thailand undermine these successes and have been characterised by the exclusion and marginalisation of people who use drugs, which has fuelled on-going epidemics of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) among this population. The Thai government's response to drug use continues to be one of 'zero-tolerance', focused on eradicating drug consumption and production with the imposition of harsh punishment for drug-related crimes, ranging from compulsory detention to the death penalty. This response reflects the regional commitment to achieving a 'drug-free ASEAN by 2015'. Details: London: International Drug Policy Consortium, 2013. 15p. Source: Internet Resource: IDPC Briefing Paper: Accessed October 17, 2016 at: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/566349360/library/IDPC-briefing-paper-Thailand-drug-policy-English.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Thailand URL: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/566349360/library/IDPC-briefing-paper-Thailand-drug-policy-English.pdf Shelf Number: 144866 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug EnforcementDrug PolicyDrug ReformOpium |
Author: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Global SMART Programme Title: Afghanistan Synthetic Drugs Situation Assessment Summary: Afghanistan's opiate market has annually accounted for the largest share of illicit opium produced worldwide. Alongside the continued dominant presence of an illicit opiate market, recent reports indicate an increasing availability of synthetic drugs in Afghanistan and the South-Western and Central Asian region as a whole. Overall, there continue to be some significant analytical gaps in the information and data relating to synthetic drugs in Afghanistan. The main objective of this report is to offer some initial insights into the extent of synthetic drug production, use, and trafficking in Afghanistan and to highlight important areas for further research. The phenomenon of synthetic drugs cannot be understood by focussing on Afghanistan alone. Rather, this report situates the dynamics of synthetic drugs in the country within the wider context of South-Western and Central Asia in order to understand the recent emergence and origins of synthetic drugs in Afghanistan. Based on this approach, presenting the regional perspective helps to provide a full picture of the synthetic drug situation in Afghanistan. The research process of this report incorporated various resources and strands of information. Much of the data and information presented in this report are derived from field research material that was gathered over an eight-month period. The field research included missions to 5 provinces in Afghanistan, where interviews were conducted with over 100 key informants, drug users and law enforcement officials at government offices, health service centres and drug treatment providers (see Annex). These various sources of information have also been supplemented by official reports involving national aggregate information and data. Details: Vienna: UNODC, 2017. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 22, 2017 at: http://www.unodc.org/documents/Reports/2017_Afghanistan_Synthetic_Drugs_Assessment_report.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.unodc.org/documents/Reports/2017_Afghanistan_Synthetic_Drugs_Assessment_report.pdf Shelf Number: 144842 Keywords: Drug TraffickingIllegal DrugsIllicit DrugsOpiumSynthetic Drugs |
Author: Felbab-Brown, Vanda Title: Afghanistan Affectations: How to Break Political-Criminal Alliances in Contexts of Transition Summary: The case of Afghanistan analyzes how counterinsurgency, stabilization, and reconstruction dynamics have interacted with the generalized predatory criminality in Afghanistan and how the latter became the crux of Afghanistan's dire and fragile predicament. The transition choices by the Afghan government and the international community, particularly the embrace of problematic warlords for the sake of short-term military battlefield advantages and as tools of political cooptation, shaped and reinforced criminality and corruption in post-2001 Afghanistan and thus delegitimized the post-Taliban political dispensation. The analysis identifies four possible inflection points where the international community and the Afghan government could have fundamentally altered the course after the initial choices of the informal distribution of power and its connections to criminality were made in 2001. These four possible inflection points provided opportunities for tackling corruption and criminality in order to limit power abuse and strengthen the rule of law and political inclusiveness-namely: (1) the 2004 disarmament effort; (2) the beginning of the Obama administration and its surge of resources in Afghanistan; (3) the 2014 formation of the NUG whose two protagonists crucially campaigned on an anti-corruption platform; and (4) the 2015 missed opportunity to react resolutely to the Taliban's takeover of Kunduz City. But the international community and the Afghan government failed to take advantage of these possible inflection points. Or to the extent that they tried, such as during the first two years of the Obama administration, other strategic directives, timelines, and imperatives interfered with them and directly contradicted them. Thus, the anti-corruption and anti-criminality efforts were not underpinned by political heft and power, such as cutting off aid to or otherwise sanctioning particular powerbrokers. Hence pernicious individual powerbrokers and the political system quickly learned how to ride the anti-corruption and anti-crime efforts, further delegitimizing the system and enabling a significant intensification of the Taliban's insurgency in Afghanistan. No doubt, the Taliban itself has become deeply involved in all kinds of illicit economies, including drugs, timber, and gems. This involvement has grown over time despite the fact that since its inception in 1994 and as a product of the brutality and chaos of the 1990s civil war, the Taliban defined its purpose as improving governance in Afghanistan and acting against the rampant criminality that swept the country. Indeed, during the administration of President George W. Bush, it was the Taliban's involvement in the drug economy that received most international attention out of all the illicit economies, corruption, and predatory criminality that went on in Afghanistan. Yet the counternarcotics policies which were chosen both failed to accomplish their stated goal of bankrupting the Taliban and turned out to be highly counterproductive. Far from delegitimizing the Taliban in the eyes of local populations as a mere cartel or as narco-guerrillas, efforts to eradicate opium poppy cultivation as well as particular designs of drug interdiction allowed the Taliban to present itself a protector of people's livelihoods and thereby to obtain significant political capital. Thus, the international community mounted the most intense efforts precisely against the wrong type of illicit economy and criminality: the labor-intensive poppy cultivation that underpins much of the country's economic growth and provides elemental livelihoods and human security to vast segments of the rural population. Instead, the anti-crime efforts should have focused on the predatory criminality and non-labor intensive aspects of transactional crimes, such as drug smuggling. The Obama administration at least defunded eradication, but its efforts against predatory crime ultimately proved unsatisfactory. Its efforts against predatory criminality were held hostage to the administration's own strategic decision to define the mission there as principally one of limited couterterrorism and to de-emphasize state-building and also to impose restrictive and counterproductive timeliness on U.S. assistance, particularly military, efforts. Thus, from the very beginning of the U.S. intervention, when there was the largest window of opportunity to embrace Afghan aspirations for good governance and shape the outcome, and throughout 2014 when the number of U.S. troops in Aghanistan was radically reduced, Washington neglected to commit itself to rebuilding Afghanistan in the right way. And earlier inflection point that perhaps could have countered the basic mis-governance trends in the country and the rise of predatory criminality was in 2004 when the first disarmament effort was undertaken. However, that opportunity was missed, with most of the crucial warlords not fully and sufficiently disarmed. Details: Tokyo: United Nations University Centre for Policy Research, 2017. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: Crime-Conflict Nexus Series: No 8: Accessed June 20, 2017 at: https://i.unu.edu/media/cpr.unu.edu/attachment/2442/Afghanistan-Affectations-How-to-Break-Political-Criminal-Alliances-in-Contexts-of-Transition.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Afghanistan URL: https://i.unu.edu/media/cpr.unu.edu/attachment/2442/Afghanistan-Affectations-How-to-Break-Political-Criminal-Alliances-in-Contexts-of-Transition.pdf Shelf Number: 146319 Keywords: Crime-Conflict NexusDrug SmugglingDrug WarlordsIllegal EconomiesIllicit DrugsIllicit EconomiesOpiumPolitical Corruption |
Author: Mansfield, David Title: High and Dry: Poppy cultivation and the future of those that reside in the former desert areas of South West Afghanistan Summary: The deserts of southwestern Afghanistan have been transformed. Land that was once dry and strewn with rocks, has been cleared, irrigated, and planted with crops by an influx of new settlers. The pace of the settlement of the former desert areas of the southwest is such that by 2018 there was an additional 357,885 hectares of agricultural land compared to 2002, and possibly as many as 3.6 million people residing there. And at a time when the north of the country is experiencing a dramatic drought, a further 29,000 hectares of land came under cultivation in the former deserts of the southwest between 2017 and 2018. In fact, more land was cultivated in the former desert north of the Boghra Canal in Helmand in 2018 than ever before, and there were further signs of migration into the area from farmers looking to escape the uptick in violence in the canal irrigated area following the government's efforts to recapture parts of Nad Ali. The change is such that the former desert lands north of the of the Boghra in Helmand are almost indistinguishable from those areas to the south where US$ 75 million, much of it provided by the United States, was invested in more than 200 km of irrigation canals over a three-decade period. Increased access to technology, relatively low land prices-and at least in the area north of the Boghra Canal-a recovery of opium yields-continue to draw people into these former desert lands. The population has dug in. The markets, that once straddled the Boghra canal, and thereby served both the populations of the desert to the north and the irrigated areas to the south, have lost their importance. Permanent markets have been established deep in the former desert area, north of the canal, reflecting the changing face of central Helmand, the growth in the settled population in these former empty spaces, and the increasing purchasing power of those that live there. However, despite these obvious gains the productivity of these former desert places - and thereby the lives of the population that reside there - is precarious. In recent years the uptick in technology such as herbicides and the use of solar technology to power deep wells has helped farmers overcome falling yields and lower production costs. But at the same time these developments pose a threat to agricultural sustainability and the livelihoods of the population in these former desert areas. The ground water that the area relies on is falling at an increasing rate with the growth in solar-powered technology and there are signs that it is contaminated with nitrates. This paper draws on detailed fieldwork and imagery in 2018 to document the changes in the lives and livelihoods of the population in these rapidly expanding former desert areas of the southwest. It traces changes in agricultural practice, governance and the experiences of the population, both men and women, to illustrate how fragile life is for those living in these former desert areas and the vulnerability of the population. The paper is pioneering in its efforts to document the lives and livelihoods of women in these former desert areas where prevailing levels of insecurity, the tradition of seclusion, and the challenges of conducting fieldwork in the remote former desert spaces mean that this is a population group whose voices are rarely heard. The paper is divided into six sections. The first section outlines the methodology used to conduct research in such difficult and insecure terrain. The second section examines the contrasting histories of settlement of two former desert areas: the area north of the Boghra canal in Helmand and Bakwa, some 100 kilometers to the northwest. The third section looks at the changing face of governance in these former desert areas. It highlights just how incidental the government is to those that live in places like Bakwa and north of the Boghra and provides evidence of the insurgency's growing influence over the population's way of life in matters of security, justice, education, and even environmental policy. The fourth section details agricultural production over the winter of 2017-18 and highlights the critical role that opium production plays in the economic viability of these former desert areas. The fifth section documents the experiences of those that live in these former desert areas, with a particular focus on those women that migrate to the area north of the Boghra Canal on a seasonal basis. Finally, a conclusion is offered. Details: Kabul: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, 2018. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: Issues Paper: Accessed November 16, 2018 at: https://areu.org.af/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/1817E-High-and-Dry-Poppy-cultivation-and-the-future-of-those-that-reside-in-the-former-desert-areas-of-South-West-Afghanistan.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Afghanistan URL: https://areu.org.af/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/1817E-High-and-Dry-Poppy-cultivation-and-the-future-of-those-that-reside-in-the-former-desert-areas-of-South-West-Afghanistan.pdf Shelf Number: 153495 Keywords: Illegal Drugs Illicit Crops Opium Poppy Cultivation |
Author: Le Cour Grandmaison, Romain Title: No More Opium for the Masses: From the U.S. Fentanyl Boom to the Mexican Opium Crisis: Opportunitiee Amidst Violence? Summary: This report examines the effects of the upsurge in U.S. fentanyl use on opium producing areas in Mexico. By using available quantitative data on Mexican opium production as well as qualitative field research from opium producing communities in Nayarit and Guerrero, this paper offers valuable insights into Mexico's illicit drug trade. In particular, this paper demonstrates the extent to which certain villages in the Golden Triangle, but also in Guerrero, Nayarit, and Oaxaca rely on opium production for survival. The authors estimate that the opium economy channeled around 19 billion pesos ($1 billion dollars) to some of the poorest communities in Mexico in 2017. This is a vast amount, nearly three times the total legal agricultural output of the entire state of Guerrero. Up to around 2017, opium growers in Mexico were earning around 20,000 pesos ($1,050 dollars) a kilo of raw opium, and families could bring in up to 200,000 pesos ($10,500 dollars) per year. With the upsurge in fentanyl use, the demand for Mexican heroin has fallen sharply, by an estimated 7 billion pesos ($364 million dollars). This has had an immediate knock-on for opium producers. Farmers are now being paid around 6000 to 8000 pesos ($315 - 415 dollars) per kilo of raw opium. These losses have caused farmers' profits to disappear, village economies to dry up; and out-migration to increase. These findings have important implications for public security in Mexico, as well as major ramifications for international counter-drug efforts. Criminal groups in Mexico are nothing if not supple and adaptable to change. If current trends continue in the coming years, such groups may continue to dominate poppy-growing regions through other industries including illegal logging, illegal mining or the production of synthetic drugs. While legalization and crop substitution have been touted as possible alternatives, these should not be conceived of as silver bullets. However, if properly researched and managed, both policies could be introduced relatively cheaply and effectively. Initially at least, they would loosen the grip of organized crime groups on the regions and tie farmers to licit international markets. Combined with other broader security policies, they could integrate these marginalized areas into the country for good. Resolving this crisis requires further in-depth, policy-focused research in Mexico. It is urgent to design policies that are based on solid, updated knowledge about local dynamics of violence in the country. Any political response must be based on further research and diagnosis, conducted in the most critical opium producing regions of the country. Mexican government officials and international aid agencies should work to strengthen programs to promote long-term crop-substitution and economic development opportunities. Such policies are urgently needed to encourage local agricultural producers to focus on legitimate, locally sustainable crops and alternative industries. Recent proposals to legalize opium for the pharmaceutical industry should be considered seriously. Yet, legalization would only solve a one part of the issue, since Mexican demand for legal opioids is massively lower than the country's current illegal production. Hence, the solution must be articulated both at the national and international level, in order to tackle supply and demand simultaneously. Details: s.l.: Noria Research, Washington, DC: Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center. 2019. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 14, 2019 at: https://www.noria-research.com/app/uploads/2019/02/NORIA_OPIUM_MEXICO_CRISIS_PRO-1.pdf Year: 2019 Country: Mexico URL: https://www.noria-research.com/app/uploads/2019/02/NORIA_OPIUM_MEXICO_CRISIS_PRO-1.pdf Shelf Number: 154601 Keywords: FentanylIllegal DrugsIllicit Drug TradeOpioid EpidemicOpioidsOpiumOrganized Crime |