They're so open about it that fields of sturdy marijuana plants, some nearly seven feet tall, line part of the main road leading west from Mazar-e-Sharif, the biggest city in northern Afghanistan. Resin from the plant, also known as cannabis, is concentrated to make hashish.

With the main harvest expected in one to two months, growers in the roadside village of Khana Abad, 20 miles from Mazar-e-Sharif, say they'll ignore government warnings to tear up their crops.

"Maybe it isn't good for our people, but we have to do it because of our economic problems," said Rouzudin, a farmer who said he heard the warnings broadcast on the radio only after investing a large sum in his plot.

Rouzudin might just be able to harvest his leafy, dark green crop without state intervention. Since the Taliban were ousted in a U.S.-led war last year, Afghanistan's new government and the United Nations have focused anti-drug efforts on eradicating opium-bearing poppies, which are used to make heroin.

Afghanistan was once the source of 70 percent of the world's opium, much of it originating in the south of the country.

The Taliban successfully banned poppies in 2000, but farmers quickly planted them again after their ouster. During the harvest earlier this year, the government offered compensation money to farmers who abandoned opium, but many reaped their harvest anyway.

Marijuana plants are less of a priority, even though Afghanistan, especially the northern part, is a major producer. Consumption of hashish, the plant's concentrated resin, is widespread in the country, and smugglers ferry it through Iran and to markets in the Persian Gulf, Europe and beyond.

The United Nations has conducted surveys of poppy crops, but has not done so for marijuana plants. The focus on poppies possibly reflects the view of international donors that highly addictive heroin is the more urgent problem.

Marijuana plants are widely grown in at least three of the 16 districts in Balkh province, which is home to Mazar-e-Sharif. Local authorities have sent letters to villages urging farmers to stop growing the illegal crop, but they have yet to decide how and when they will crack down.

"The farmers have planted this stuff like smugglers," said Saheed Azizullah Hashmi, head of the province's agriculture department. "We don't know how much there is out there."

He said many people associated with the hashish trade were linked to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. But marijuana plants thrived well before they held sway over much of Afghanistan, and local commanders with large land holdings reportedly benefit from its cultivation.

Rouzudin and his fellow farmers made no effort to hide their plants, which loom over nearby cotton bushes. The two crops are interspersed along the road leading to Shibergan, the headquarters of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek commander and powerful political figure in the north.

Farmer Majid Gul said he can get 5 million Afghanis, or about $100, for 2.2 pounds of hashish, 200 times more than he could earn for the same amount of cotton.

"When we're ready to sell, people in big cars will come from the bazaar in town," he said. "We don't know who they are, we just want the money."

Complete Title: Despite Government Warnings, Farmers in Northern Afghanistan Say They'll Harvest Marijuana Plants

Source: Associated Press
Author: Christopher Torchia, Associated Press Writer
Published: Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Associated Press

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