I read a whole book about the opium/heroin trade in the middle east. Can't remember the title, but it was very informative despite the clear antidrug bias of the author. The only major complaint I have is that there was NOT A SINGLE MENTION of the idea that maybe, just maybe, these crops wouldn't be so profitable IF IT WAS LEGAL TO HARVEST THEM ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD EVER HEARD OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND ASSHOLE? But yea, other than that, great book. Lots of good photographs, too. Like the ones here. So purdy!
they aren't exactly too profitable to the farmers there to the standards most these days are used to, they are more profitable to the USA, Pakistan and other countries that act like they there are not for but 'secretly' let slide.... it is illegal in the middle east also. there are farmers that only know how to harvest opium and the police and military 'teach them how to harvest something better' but there are not too many crops that can be grown throughout the middle east obviously due to the climate...so it is not weird for them to only cut down part of the field and act as if they cut it all down. in afghanistan a gram of pure heroin is $2USD. in the USA a gram is $60-100USD and it is normally cut. those photos are lovely.
You're right, the farmers get paid next to nothing (as is generally the case with agriculture in the US. Factory farming can go OD). It's illegal to DO opiates in these countries, but processing the raw material into pure morphine or heroin is at the very least tolerated on the sly. The individuals/organizations who do process and smuggle the dope have profits in the millions. The destroying of poppy fields is more often than not a token gesture of compliance with international law. Suppliers have also deliberately caused shortages in order to increase prices on what they have stock piled. Some extremists even consider it a biological/chemical weapon, which I suppose is true in a way.
Nixon's drug war stimulated both opium production and heroin consumption. Ignoring these lessons, the Reagan and Bush administrations later pursued parallel policies in Latin America with dismal results. In essence, all three drug wars extended a local law enforcement model into the international arena in a way that failed to reduce either drug production or exports. Stimulated in part by three US drug wars, Asian opium production increased from 1,000 tons in 1970 to 4,000 tons in 1989. The amount of opium produced has risen to 5,800 tons in 2011 thanks to the situation in Afghanistan Most makes it into Europe, not the USA -We have to deal with the South American trade for the most part these days Not like in the old days when it was comin in from Southeast Asia- - BTW>Nice pics
Thanks for posting that. Heroin from Southeast Asia is most frequently brought to the United States by couriers, typically Thai and U.S. nationals, travelling on commercial airlines. California and Hawaii are the primary U.S. entry points for Golden Triangle heroin, but small percentages of the drug are trafficked into New York City and Washington, D.C. While Southeast Asian groups have had success in trafficking heroin to the United States, they initially had difficulty arranging street level distribution There is a large amount of heroin in Russia, which is a little lolsy because before the United States occupied Afghanistan so did the Russians. Afghanistan has been the greatest illicit opium producer in the entire world, ahead of Burma (Myanmar) and the "Golden Triangle" since 1992, excluding the year 2001. Afghanistan is the main producer of opium in the "Golden Crescent". Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since U.S. occupation started in 2001. Based on UNODC data, there has been more opium poppy cultivation in each of the past four growing seasons (2004–2007) than in any one year during Taliban rule. Also, more land is now used for opium in Afghanistan than for coca cultivation in Latin America. In 2007, 92% of the opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan. This amounts to an export value of about $4 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords, drug traffickers. In the seven years (1994–2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers' share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families Opium Wars, wooo!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
