America is completely losing the war on drugs in Afghanistan. -CNN. Afghan farmers are growing record crops of opium despite the $7.6 billion spent by the U.S. government to fight production. Afghanistan produces between 75 to 80% of the worlds opium and is making $3 billion a year on it. Some of that money, of course, goes to fund the Taliban insurgency and terrorism. Provinces that were once opium free, such as Nangahar, have had booming poppy production. U.S. officials blamed Afghanistan's government for not doing enough to combat opium production.
My Comment:
What a waste of money. Imagine what they could have done with that $7.6 billion that could have actually helped people. I'm no fan of opium, or any drugs for that matter, but the market is too profitable to eradicate. Afghanistan is an extremely poor and backward country and as long as opium is a cash crop people will grow it. Nothing short of napalming the fields and killing all the farmers will prevent that, as long as it is profitable.
So what would work to counter the drug industry in Afghanistan? Not much. Like I said it is such a huge part of their economy that they can't just get rid of it. I posted awhile ago about how Afghanistan has $1 trillion dollars of rare earth minerals, and tons more of more conventional mineral resources. Spending $7.6 billion on developing the infrastructure and investment needed to extract these minerals would be a better investment then wasting money on a futile war on drugs. Still, even if Afghanistan could get mines up and running, opium is too valuable to give up on. People will always want to get high and as long as that is true people will grow opium.
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