What Are The Economic / Social And Political Effects Of Opium Trafficking? Afghanistan?

Today the number are in the war on drug is a huge failure with devastated unintended consequences, it lead to mass incarceration in the us, to corruption, to political destabilization, and violence in latin america, asia, and africa. To systemic human right abuse across the world.”-Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

Opioids are taking over the United States with its addictive composition, once patients are take opioids there is no escaping. The drug directed from opium which is obtained from a plant (Katz). Opioids are most commonly found in prescription pill from making underground sales more common. Since opioids are derived from a plant this makes the reality of home grown drugs more of an issue. American citizens overdosing on opioids is what is sparking the crisis because opioid “overdoses killed more people last year than guns or car accidents” (Katz). Opioids are extremely addictive and that is why so many citizens overdose on these types of drugs. After patients become hooked on opioids their body constantly is needing more and more opium to escape they pain they think they are enduring. The overdosing of Americans is not a small percentage of the population either, it is estimated that “over two million people in America have problem with opioids” proving this growing issue is an ongoing crisis (Katz). The United States government needs to take action immediately to the opioid crisis because doctors are overprescribing patients because they seemingly overreact to pain, and opioids are one of the most addictive drug types in the world.

In the past forty years, the United States has spent over $2.5 trillion dollars funding enforcement and prevention in the fight against drug use in America (Suddath). Despite the efforts made towards cracking down on drug smugglers, growers, and suppliers, statistics show that addiction rates have remained unchanged and the number of people using illegal drugs is increasing daily (Sledge). Regardless of attempts to stem the supply of drugs, the measure and quality of drugs goes up while the price goes down (Koebler). Now with the world’s highest incarceration rates and greatest illegal drug consumption (Sledge), the United States proves that the “war on drugs” is a war that is not being won.

Today the number are in the war on drug is a huge failure with devastated unintended consequences, it lead to mass incarceration in the us, to corruption, to political destabilization, and violence in latin america, asia, and africa. To systemic human right abuse across the world.”-Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

The opium epidemic is leading many Americans down a path that will ruin not only their lives but their loved ones also. “Safe Injections Sites” will only raise addiction rates and opium consumption in the United

Lastly, heroin and krokodil impact American terrorism. Heroin comes from a poppy plant that can reach maturity in a short amount of time. The opium that comes from that poppy plant is turned into morphine. The morphine that is extracted is then turned into different forms of heroin. The poppy plants are mostly grown in Afghanistan with “... its total export value… [of] about $40 billion… About a quarter went to Afghan opium farmers” (“Krokodil Drug Facts: Effects…”).

First Frontline claims,” 2 billion dollars are earned annually from the Opium industry in Afghanistan.” Then there was the old woman who pleaded during an eradication process,”I am begging you to leave those two patches for me, for my son, for God's sake! God knows I have taken money as a loan. I took it because I am poor.” Next, there was the farmer who lived outside of the government’s reach that said, ”Opium gives the best harvest and better money than any other crop. These days, I think one-kilo opium might be [$2,000 - $2,500] or even higher. It depends on the daily market. It goes up and down.” Even Farishta’s mother’s last statement before her disappearance was,” We took the money and bought some land. First, we worked as farm laborers, but then we worked on our own land. We bought a house. Our lives improved a little after taking the money. Then there was chaos. Those people came and crushed all the poppy crops. All our money and everything we had were gone, and we became desperate.” Each piece of evidence represented nothing but despair coexisting with the government’s

There are many contributing factors to the perfect storm of sorts that lead to the rapid increase in Tajikistan’s status as a drug state. One of the most important of these is the proximity of Tajikistan to Afghanistan. This proximity allowed for Afghanistan to take advantage of Tajikistan in the midst of civil unrest giving the people of the poverty stricken economy an easy way to make quick money. This was made easier for Afghanistan by Tajikistan’s lack of border regulations, allowing drugs to easily be transferred between the two countries. Afghanistan shares a 1,200 km border with Afghanistan and

The Taliban inflicted a reign even more brutal and fundamentalist than that of Hekmatyar. Unlike Hekmatyar, the Taliban differed in their hopes for a ban on opium, expressly for religious reasons and likely to suppress the finances of their rival warlords. The Taliban initially implemented an opium ban after gaining power, but the policy was quickly overturned because they feared a violent uprising by the masses. After all, an Afghan farmer can make $10,000 a year with opium compared to about $400 a year with legal crops. As a result, Afghanistan remained the primary source for the global heroin supply. However, the Taliban eventually decided to reinstate the ban on opium in 2000 in hopes that their government would gain international recognition. Accordingly, the Taliban strictly enforced the new policy and opium production was reduced by 96% within a year. Consequently, the U.S. government rewarded the Taliban in May of 2001 with $43 million for their opium elimination efforts.

Afghanistan to guard the poppy plant fields. Poppy grows abundantly in the Middle East but is mostly found in Afghanistan. Poppy produces a euphoric compound known as opium. Opium is obviously a drug; however, it is not that fact that should disturb you. Opium is used in the production of heroin. Heroin use has been on the rise for the past three years in the United States. The available evidence points to only one outcome, and that is that the United States is participating in the production and distribution of heroin and is therefore directly responsible for the rise in heroin use. Why else would the FDA approve a heroin overdose kit to be sold in the markets? The fact of the matter is that the government is aiding in addiction, has completely made up the war on drugs, and is operating on some sort of hidden agenda. The CIA had a plane flying over the U.S./Mexican border that crashed. Among the debris at the crash site was several kilos of cocaine. How odd is it that the CIA would be transporting cocaine into the United States? In regards to drug policy, the United States must call back troops in the Middle East and return the Poppy fields to the people of Afghanistan. Heroin use would decrease.

The drug problem in the U.S. and around the world is an important issue and seems to be a difficult problem to tackle across the board. The inflow of drugs has become one of the largest growths in transnational crime operations; illicit drug use in the United States makes it very difficult for nation states police and customs forces to get a handle on the issues. War on drugs, drug trafficking has long been an issue for the United States. There has been a proclamation of “war on drugs” for the past 44 years.

Although the Taliban was able to provide economic growth in Afghanistan, it was at the expense of global addiction. Further, economic growth was short lasting because in 2001, the Taliban banned opium production as a result of overproduction and a significant price decrease. The ban did increase opium prices, however it “had devastated many farmers, who were left with large unpaid loans to drug dealers and no source of income”(Descent into Chaos 320). Opposition to the Taliban therefore increased amongst the Afghan population (320). Moreover, even though the Taliban was at first praised for bringing relative “peace and security to the regions they captured, their social and religious policies were widely unpopular” (Barfield 289).

Majority of the people in Afghanistan never thought about the cultivation of poppies (opium) as a method of revenue for welfares until the Soviet Union’s invasion. Therefore, many expert people argue that the result of the war caused cultivation of poppies in the country. A successful eradication of opium in Afghanistan will lead the country towards a stable, prosperous, and secure state in the region thru implementing the three strategic factors. The first factor is: eliminate all the lines of financial funding to the terrorist groups by over watching the markets, banks, and border areas. The second factor is: the society of Afghanistan will be free from the use of drugs, and the trust will be built between the people and the government forces.

Perhaps the U.S. could use the surrounding countries around Afghanistan to help control the amount of opium being smuggled through the border checkpoints. “Not only have U.S. policies to eliminate drugs in Afghanistan failed, but they have worked to undermine some of its broader goals in the region. A more effective policy would be to fully legalize the opium economy. Legalization of opium would effectively lower the value of opium, decrease violence and likely weaken not only the Taliban insurgency, but reduce the Afghan government 's rampant corruption,” (Hall, 2015). While this might be an effective solution, it might not be the best solution by allowing the opium to be legalized. There would be many positives, but there would also have many negatives because it would still cause’s death among heroin users, because it is a byproduct of opium. There should be other options looked at because what we are currently doing is not working,” (Burnsed, C 2015). U.S. forces have failed at preventing the spread of Narcotics from Afghanistan, but to expand on this problem the root of this particular issue should be looked into further. “One of the fundamental issues is that it has hindered the prevention of the opium trade is the lack of awareness on the part of troops in country. While some unidentified organizations would go around and burn the opium, and pay the farmers for the damage; a lot of U.S. troops did not see

One of Tehran’s gravest concerns is that almost 50% of Afghan opium production travels through her lands; it is estimated that Iran hosts some 1-4 million drug addicts. Hence, the National Drug Control Headquarters of Iran (DCHQ) has declared drug addiction