KANDAHAR: Growing opium is a crime in Afghanistan but it is a way of life for tens of thousands of farmers there. Many families earn livelihood from selling the sticky, brown sap derived from the poppies grown in his fields. That brown sap is finally refined into heroin.
With growing political pressure for a political settlement to end 18 years of war in Afghanistan, the drug trade is under a grave threat, leaving the country at the risk of becoming a “narco-state”. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a U.S. Congressional watchdog, said so in recent report.
Efforts to develop alternative crops like saffron for poor farmers didn’t have much success. It has hardly stopped illegal ‘drugs trade’ in Afghanistan. For years, Afghanistan has been the top producer of opium despite the in intervention of U.S. government to ban production and trafficking in narcotics.
Officials are helpless in prohibiting the drug trade in Afghanistan due to compelling economic incentives and politically protected networks – from cultivators to producers and distributors – all deeply entrenched. (Agencies)
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