Afghanistan leads in poppy production

October 27, 2002 2:11 PM

Afghanistan leads in poppy production Now that we have rid the country of the nasty controlling party, it is good to return to normal business so that exports can help make this a better world. Is this a part of our re-construction plan?
posted by Postroad (19 comments total)

what's wrong with opium?
posted by timb at 3:30 PM on October 27, 2002

I was just momentarily startled when I misread the FPP as "Afghanistan leads in poopy production." The benefits of a high-fiber diet, no doubt...
posted by Vidiot at 3:43 PM on October 27, 2002

Poppy production is up nearly 19-fold between '01 and '02.

Is Papa Bush getting back into the drug running game?

Of course, we're all gonna need some high quality smack once his idiot son runs the economy into the ground and leaves us all jobless.
posted by cru de meon at 3:46 PM on October 27, 2002

The issue here is of income for the people of Afghanistan. If you were a poor Afghan farmer, and you had the choice of growing either food, which nets a low price, or opium, which nets a high price, which one are you going to choose?

Opium, of course. These people are trying to survive, and growing opium helps them much more than growing food. I don't really thing this is the fault of any other country in a restructuring, it's just the way it goes.

Until we offer them a viable alternative that is as profitable for them as opium, they're going to choose the opium.
posted by Matt_K at 4:06 PM on October 27, 2002

but the real question (especially since according to the Bush Admin and their drug ads) is why isn't this administration doing something to stop the heroin trade since it's so "evil". Every time you toke up with your friends you're "supporting terrorism." Bush is in a position to actually back his talk up on the War on Drugs, and instead there's a 19-fold increase in production in a country that, for all intents and purposes, we are in control of. It's outright hypocrisy to use all this horseshit propaganda at home, and then do nothing about cutting off the supply!
posted by cru de meon at 4:18 PM on October 27, 2002

One of the Taliban's major mistakes was outlawing poppy cultivation. They basically guaranteed their demise with that move.
posted by ceibo at 4:39 PM on October 27, 2002

It's outright hypocrisy to use all this horseshit propaganda at home, and then do nothing about cutting off the supply!

It's also hypocrisy that they won't discuss other ways of supporting terrorism. I like this idea for an ad campaign.
posted by homunculus at 4:39 PM on October 27, 2002

Several years ago -- I think 1998 or later, but I'm not sure -- I remember reading an article in the Reader's Digest that was largely Pro-Taliban. The premise was that their no-nonsense, zero-tolerance stance had finally cleaned up that Afghanistan place. I would absolutely love to get a hold of said article as an example of ... well, lots of things. Media bias, foreign policy blindness, etc.

Any of you information Gods want to help find it?

Every time you toke up with your friends you're "supporting terrorism."

Ummm... if it's true of Nike's and sweatshops, it's true of drug trade and criminal/terrorist elements. Unless you grew it yourself. The only way to really solve that problem is to stop the demand.
posted by namespan at 4:40 PM on October 27, 2002

but the real question (especially since according to the Bush Admin and their drug ads) is why isn't this administration doing something to stop the heroin trade since it's so "evil".

The question there is "What can they do?"

Storm the Afghan farmers and send them off in chains? Ask them nicely to stop (already been tried, I'm sure)? Napalm the poppy fields?

While I'm sure some of you wouldn't be putting that past the current administration, a reality check is in order -- demanding solutions when there are no immediate solutions produces nothing but frustration.

Perhaps if international law enforcement targeted those who buy the opium from Afghanistan? Take away the Afghan's reason to grow opium, and they'll grow something else. I think maybe that would prove better than futher oppressing a people who have been so oppressed in the last decade.
posted by Matt_K at 5:02 PM on October 27, 2002

[sighs, eyes glaze over]
posted by quonsar at 6:07 PM on October 27, 2002

The whole drugs-support-terrorism ad campaign is what inspired my idea to print the "Thank You For Supporting Global Terror" stickers.

I've sold nearly 4000 of them, by the way. I've got just 90 left. (I'm not reprinting unless it gets mentioned in AdBusters or something. Since my censorship battle with Google, I just don't have the exposure to print up another batch right now.)
posted by tpoh.org at 6:42 PM on October 27, 2002

I think we should bomb them back to the Stone Age. Again.
posted by RylandDotNet at 7:18 PM on October 27, 2002

It's encouraging that American free-market ideas are taking hold in Afghanistan.
posted by JulianA at 7:28 PM on October 27, 2002

Unless you grew it yourself

Nail on the head.

Solution: Buy local.
posted by Big_B at 7:50 PM on October 27, 2002

Is this a part of our re-construction plan?

Uh, what reconstruction plan?~
posted by carter at 8:36 PM on October 27, 2002

So the people of afghanistan grow a cash crop for an export market, no great surprise there.
posted by johnnyboy at 3:59 AM on October 28, 2002

Welcome to the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st century.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 8:49 AM on October 28, 2002

[sighs, eyes glaze over]
posted by quonsar at 6:07 PM PST on October 27

Now is that exasperation, or the benefit of increased opium production?
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:08 AM on October 28, 2002

Don't forget that Haji Abdul Qadir, one of three Vice Presidents (the one assassinated in July) once was governor of Nangahar, the second largest producer of opium in the early 90s. After he was reinstalled he went with a UN-backed plan to crack down on opium production. Some speculate it was this action that led to his assassination, although I have seen no proof or resolution to the event. It could also have been Al-Queda as they have assassinated several government officials.

In any event, I don't believe the government has much control of anything outside Kabul.

More info on Afghan drug trade.
posted by infowar at 10:47 AM on October 28, 2002