Opium Cartels Are Threatening Afghan Reconstruction Efforts

We already know that Afghanistan's opium production is at an all-time high and that the Taliban have been using it to fuel its more than a decade-old insurgency. Now, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction has labeled the drug trade a major threat against Afghan reconstruction efforts.

In a quarterly report presented to Congress yesterday, SIGAR, a group monitoring corruption in the rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan, outlined how the opium trade has become a major inhibiting factor to the overall Afghan reconstruction efforts by international security forces. (Also hampering the reconstruction is the fact that said forces are currently heading out of the embattled country.)

"Counternarcotics appears to have fallen off the agenda of both the US government and the international community," says the report. "Despite the fact that it is impossible to develop a coherent and effective strategy for a post-2014 Afghanistan without taking full account of the opium economy."

According to the monitoring group, the Afghan opium trade "directly provides" up to 411,000 full time jobs in the war torn country.

SIGAR said it was imperative to tackle the opium trade, because insurgent commanders "are able to fund themselves through the opium trade, and as long as corrupt officials profit from the illicit economy, there may be few incentives for making peace."

Since the Soviet occupation of the 80s, Afghan poppy production has been a key source of income for warlords looking to finance their operations. SIGAR reports that Afghanistan is heads and tails the world's largest opium producer, accounting for over 90 percent of global supply.

It's also the number one cash crop in the country, and combined with its derivative products—opium, morphine equivalents, and heroin—it's the largest export in Afghanistan. All in, opiates inject a staggering $3 billion annually into the Afghan economy.

Capitalizing on neighbouring countries, the Taliban and other associated rebel groups have peddled opiates to Iran with devastating effect, while krokodil—an extremely nasty form of heroin that turns users' skin scaly—is a scourge on Russian addicts. Even in countries like Canada, Afghan heroin is common.

All the while, as Forbes reports, Taliban forces can afford to bankroll the very insurgency forcing the Americans to pour billions into a failed occupation.

Having already spent $7.8 billion on Afghan counter narcotic operations, American forces are being pressed to do more. Yet, part of the original policy of burning poppy fields and marijuana crops was a failed one. Canadian Forces members I've spoken with in the past told me about how they walked through poppy fields and thick marijuana brush, but didn't have orders for any sort of counter.

Their American counterparts, on the other hand, spent time destroying the narcotics, which inevitably pissed Afghan farmers off and often drove them to the loyalties of the Taliban. In fact, it was such a disastrous system the Americans eventually abandoned the policy of burning poppy fields in 2013.

Meanwhile, other rebuilding projects have indirectly aided the opiate industry in Afghanistan. SIGAR reports that irrigation projects in Nangarhar, Badakhshan, and Kunar Provinces "may have facilitated increased opium-poppy cultivation after periods of significant reductions."

Ultimately, if the latest SIGAR report proves anything, it's that America's own Afghan foray ended just like the Soviet Union's in the 80s: as a failure, with a flourishing narco-industry left in the wake of its exit.