cannabisnews.com: Kabul Bans Opium Poppy Growing, Trafficking





Kabul Bans Opium Poppy Growing, Trafficking
Posted by FoM on January 16, 2002 at 11:31:21 PT
Breaking News
Source: Reuters
Afghanistan, one of the world's main sources of opium, Wednesday banned the cultivation of opium poppy and the trafficking in opium and its derivatives, including heroin. The decree, announced days before Kabul's interim administration meets major aid donors in Tokyo, renewed a ban issued by the Taliban in 2000 which effectively lapsed with the collapse of the Muslim fundamentalist movement last November. 
``All countrymen, especially peasants and farmers, are informed that from now on, the cultivation, manufacturing, processing, impermissible use, smuggling and trafficking of opium poppy and all its derivatives is declared illegal,'' said the statement read to journalists by a U.N. official in Kabul. ``Violators will be dealt with severely,'' it added. It said Afghanistan would seek help from donors to fund crop substitution programs to wean farmers off growing poppy, a popular cash crop in this drought-stricken country. Bernard Frahi, the Afghanistan and Pakistan representative of the U.N. Drug Control Program, read the Afghan statement after holding talks with the government. ``We are more than satisfied, it is a remarkable declaration,'' he said, adding that Afghanistan provided 90 percent of the heroin sold in Europe. Heroin is refined from opium, mostly in illegal laboratories in Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan and Iran. The decree said provincial governors and law enforcement agencies had been instructed to enforce the ban. WORLD'S BIGGEST PURE HEROIN HAUL With its isolated mountain valleys, defiant warlords and impoverished farmers, Afghanistan has all the natural and human ingredients to be a major opium producer. Production soared during the 1980s Soviet war, as Muslim rebels used opium to help finance their jihad (holy war) against Moscow, and then zoomed to new heights under the Taliban, reaching a record 4,500 tons in 1999. After the Taliban banned opium cultivation and destroyed poppy fields under their control two years ago, the harvest slipped to 3,276 tons in 2000 and a mere 185 tons in 2001. But as soon as U.S. bombing began last October, restless Pashtun tribes ignored the Taliban and started sowing poppy. The bumper crops of recent years meant Afghanistan had huge stocks of opium and heroin which were now starting to emerge following the end of Taliban rule, Frahi said. ``We know that traffickers are worried about keeping processed heroin inside Afghanistan as it will be destroyed,'' he said. Pakistani police seized the world's largest haul of pure heroin -- 630 kg (1,390 pounds) -- from a camel caravan near the Iranian border last week, and a further 125 kg (275 pounds) this week. Frahi said he expected further huge hauls in future as dealers ran down their stocks. To illustrate the size of the biggest haul, Frahi said Britain's largest seizure of pure heroin last year was 80 kg. Despite the 2000 ban on poppy cultivation, the Taliban never took steps against drug traffickers, destroyed opium stockpiles or dismantled laboratories producing heroin from opium, he said. Frahi said 50 percent of opium production before the Taliban ban came from the southern province of Helmand, with Nangarhar in the east in second place with 20 percent. Source: ReutersPublished: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Reuters LimitedRelated Articles:Afghan General Sets Sights on Desert Traffickershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11718.shtmlAfghans Turn To Old Friend: Opiumhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11633.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by freedom fighter on January 17, 2002 at 02:19:17 PT
Just suppose if there is no more poppy!
No more heroin?Get some aspirins
Get some cough syrup
Get some vinegarMix well and cook itShoot it.No different from the real stuff.However, it would be nice if it was the real stuff but it would be a lot better if you smoke the cannabis.ff
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Comment #2 posted by mayan on January 16, 2002 at 17:12:11 PT
& More Surprises...Not!
Exactly Industrial Strength! This new Afghani regime is in bed with Unocal too! Unocal is also in bed with the Taliban & to top it off the Bush admisnistration has been sleeping with all of them! That's one helluva love triangle(square?octagon?) but not really surprising at all considering the corporate whores in this scandal of the Milleniums(this Millenium & the last).Bush Losing Credibility(as if he had any to begin with):
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0111-05.htm
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Comment #1 posted by Industrial Strength on January 16, 2002 at 16:00:57 PT
suprise, suprise
Now that the United States is setting up yet another puppet government, no wonder they are fighting opium. At least it will give the economy of afghanistan a boost as all this will do is drive prices up, not stop production at all. Which in turn will create more crime, as addicts will have to steal more to pay for their fix. Maybe it will also decrease the purity, increase cutting agents and subsequently increase the number of OD's. Three cheers for the United States!!! Hip Hip Hoorah!
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