New drug stats out; Most opium now processed within Afghanistan

The UN World Drug Report 2007 (an annual study by the UNODC) was released today, and its most significant finding is that an estimated 90 percent of the Afghanistan's opium is now processed within the country's borders (mostly in the south and the east). That is a striking change from a couple years ago, when that proportion was reversed.

The development of a mature processing industry means that today druglords in Afghanistan keep a far greater share of their profits (which in years past were captured by lab operators in Tajikistan and Pakistan.) It also means that a concerted campaign directed at shutting down these labs (most of which are barely hidden) could hit traffickers where it hurts...Other interesting statistics below...

Other statistics from the report:

• Afghanistan's opium cultivation is increasingly concentrated in the South (and especially Helmand.)
  
• About one million Afghans--approximately 4 percent of the population--are considered "addicted" to narcotics (unfortunately this can be misleading since this category includes not only heroin and opium but also hashish.)
• 80 percent of these addicts live in rural areas where there is a huge scarcity of drug addiction treatment facilities.
• Despite a 49 percent increase in Afghan opium production in 2006, opium prices actually fell by just 17 percent in the country. The report notes that "This could suggest that there is substantial stockpiling, but there is little evidence as to where and how it is occurring."
• With the increased supply, the farm-gate prices received by farmers for dry opium declined to $125/kg in December 2006 from $150/kg a year earlier (but significant regional differences exist.)
• "In 2006, out of all opiates that left Afghanistan, 53 percent went via Iran, 33 per cent via Pakistan and 15 percent via Central Asia (mainly Tajikistan). If only heroin and morphine are considered, the bulk is estimated to have left Afghanistan via Pakistan (48%), followed byIran (31%) and Central Asia (21%)."
• Afghanistan's comparatively low seizure ratio "leaves open the possibility that large shipments are occurring under the protection of corruption, and that seizures merely reflect the small-fry who attempt to operate without this protection."
• "Helmand province is on the verge of becoming the world's biggest drug supplier, with the dubious distinction of cultivating more drugs than entire countries such as Myanmar, Morocco or even Colombia."
• In the first eight months of 2006, 248 heroin labs were dismantled in Afghanistan.
   

Most opium now processed inside Afghanistan: UN : KABUL,June 25 (AFP): Sophisticated laboratories inside Afghanistan are now converting 90 percent of the country's opium into heroin and morphine before smuggling it around the world, the United Nations said. Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of opium, had until two years ago exported the illicit drug almost exclusively in its raw form, said the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

"A couple of years ago, most of the drugs that were trafficked out of this country was opium," Oguz said.

"Now more and more of the opium is being processed into morphine and into heroin. And this indicates sophistication that we didn't have in this country before," she added.

War-shattered Afghanistan accounts for 92 percent of the world's heroin supply despite vast internationally-backed efforts to eradicate its opium poppy fields.

Oguz said the annual income from the drugs trade -- more than three billion US dollars -- helps finance the Taliban-led insurgency plaguing mainly southern and eastern Afghanistan.

"The drugs have to be fought together with the insurgency," she said.

Afghanistan produced a record 6,000 tonnes of opium last year and officials fear that with a surge in opium cultivation in the southern provinces, this year's harvest could top even that.

"I fear we'll be faced with at least the same amount as the last year, perhaps even more," Oguz said, adding that good weather conditions had also contributed to the increase.

Oguz also downplayed international efforts to eradicate poppy crops, saying that it was more important to provide cash-strapped opium farmers with alternative livelihoods. 

Comments

[Joel Hafvenstein]

Interestingly, while I know the UN's press release stated that only two years ago almost all the opium processing was done outside Afghanistan... that wasn't what they were saying two years ago.

Check out the UNODC report on Afghanistan for 2005. Hidden in their methodological footnotes on page 123 is their suggestion that "71.5% of the opium produced in Afghanistan is transformed into morphine &
heroin within Afghanistan."

So this may not be as much of a change as they are now suggesting. I was under the impression that most of the Pakistani labs moved across the border during the tolerant Taliban era, and never had any reason to move back...

[Jo]

All of which makes it clear that eradication is not working and other ideas must be tried. I've already read about the Senlis Council on this website and their idea of licensing poppy to make morphine and codeine seems a pretty interesting concept. They also just brought out a report: a technical blueprint about how to go about this (see http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/publications/documents/poppy_medicine_technical_dossier). Maybe it's time for some creative thinking about a problem that is clearly not going away....