OPIUM PRODUCTION RESUMES IN AFGHANISTAN
Arif Jamal : 3/12/02

Noor Pacha and the male members of his extended family sowed poppy in early December 2001, after the Taliban militia was driven from power in Afghanistan. The men and boys rigorously work 8,000 square meters of land in the village of Junglebagh, not far from Jalalabad in Ningarhar province. Between the middle of April and the middle of May, they hope to extract some 120 kilograms of opium from the current crop. Opium profits could total around $5,000 - a considerable sum, but in Noor Pacha's case, sufficient only to cover part of his debts, and have a little left over to feed his family.

For many Afghan farmers, poppies remain the most profitable crop to grow. "It is a compulsion for us to grow poppy," says Noor Pacha. Such views are indicative of a serious threat to Afghan reconstruction.

As Pacha's frankness suggests, heroin production in Afghanistan is not the stuff of the underworld. Most people now cultivating crops are ready to quit the poppy cultivation and opium trade if given a viable alternative, which war-torn Afghan society cannot provide. Farmers like Noor Pacha say they have a depressing range of choices: either spend a big part of their profits on preexisting debts or earn very little by selling the opium before the harvest to traders.

"If they want us to stop cultivating poppy, they would have to give us modern technology and industries," Noor Pacha said.

Farmers say they have to rely on credit purchases, which carry 100 percent markups, to obtain essential items such as fertilizers. Under such conditions, it is easy to see how debts accumulate and profits erode. Interviews with dozens of poppy farmers revealed that none of them were able to provide an education for their children even after cultivating poppy all their lives. One hears similar stories from the opium traders.

Throughout the Taliban rule, most traders stayed in business by borrowing from itinerant loan-givers or drug smugglers. One of the opium traders at the Ghani Khel market, Noor Baaz, told this correspondent that he had taken a loan of 800,000 Pakistani rupees (US $13,400) during the Taliban era. He lost everything when the Taliban banned opium in 2000 and went into hiding in Pakistan. He says he's resumed his old profession "to live and repay my old debts, which now total 1,500,000 Pakistani rupees (US $25,100) because of the compounded interest." He was not sure how long it would take to repay his debts and earn some profit.

Though Western reporting emphasizes the liberation of private enterprise in post-Taliban Afghanistan, not all of it is savory. With lawlessness rising, the farmers are finding it more and more attractive to sow poppy all over the country. That means Afghanistan is re-emerging as a major exporter of heroin and opium. This correspondent saw poppy fields spread all over eastern Afghanistan - and a number of farmers revealed that those who have not sown poppy this winter are only weighing the situation. Many intend to get into the business during the next season "if there [is] no crackdown by the next government."

Like poppy fields, poppy markets are also coming to life all over the country. The country's second-biggest biggest opium market has grown in the sleepy in the village of Ghani Khel, 16 kilometers south of the highway connecting Kabul and Peshawar, Pakistan. Between 300 and 400 small shops operate in the market, employing around 4,000 men. These shops pretend to sell everything except opium. However, there are huge stocks of opium hidden at the back of most of these shops. This correspondent found the soldiers of the interim government guarding the market.

The soldiers were blocking a supply in the hundreds of tons that seems to have drawn a steady following. According to one merchant who asked to remain anonymous, every shopkeeper in the Ghani Khel market "can provide several tons of opium/heroin at the blink of an eye." Mastan Khan says that the buyers include, among others, Americans, Pakistanis, British, Iranians, and Turks.

Relatively few of the old drug labs around the country have started producing heroin, as they are still waiting for the fall of the prices of opium with the harvest of the new poppy crop in May. But many are ready for orders. From one laboratory in the village of Kahi at the footsteps of the Tora Bora mountain range in Ningarhar, I could see another heroin laboratory nearby. The first claimed to pay roughly $23.8 for a kilogram of opium and produce up to 15 kilograms of heroin from 150 kilograms of opium. This is not unusual. Most people in the drug business believe that most heroin laboratories would be running full time once the new crop is ready.

Under the Taliban, Afghanistan emerged as the principal source of illicit opium in recent years. In 2000, 70 percent of the opium and heroin reaching European markets came from Afghanistan. Even though the Taliban imposed an effective cultivation ban, drug production continued in areas under Northern Alliance control. Now, the interim government is finding that Afghanistan's biggest growth industry is both a scourge of the world, and a dead-end for its own citizens.

Editor's Note: Arif Jamal is a freelance journalist based in Pakistan.

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Posted March 12, 2002 © Eurasianet
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