Opium and Heroin After the Taliban

One example of where military action to remove a bad element has led to the resurgence of another bad element exists in the Middle East. And surprise, I'm not talking about Iraq. No, in this case, the country in question is Afghanistan and the bad element that has grown is heroin production.

In 2000 when the Taliban was still in control of Afghanistan, it decided to ramp up its stringent policy against the growth of opium poppies and the refining of heroin in the country. The result, according to a 2001 study conducted by the UN Drug Control Programme, the harvest of opium poppies in Afghanistan dropped nearly 94% in the space of a year from 3,276 tons to 185 tons. Although export of refined heroin remained largely unchanged in that year, it was due to the existence of stockpiles. Up until the dramatic decrease, Afghanistan had supplied the world with 75% of its heroin.

So, essentially the Taliban made an embarrassment out of the rest of the world for having one of the most effective drug-elimination policies on earth. It is interesting to speculate how the face of worldwide heroin use could have been affected by these policies if the presence of marked reduction had continued for more than a year or two. 75% is a very large percentage, and if that percentage was reduced to a mere 5%, it could have meant that so long as another region didn't fill the drug vacuum, then the street price of heroin would have skyrocketed. When you have to pay that much for a drug, you either take drastic measures to keep up a habit or are simply deterred by the drug in the first place.

So what happened? Well, as we all know, the United States and Great Britain launched several military campaigns in Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Although Taliban elements were not completely wiped out as a result of these campaigns, they lost centralized power in Afghanistan. When the Taliban's grip over the populace eroded, so did its grip over opium production in the region. Consequently, the production of heroin and opium poppies resumed in the years following the invasion. In 2003 Afghanistan had once again become the world's leading supplier of opium poppies and heroin.

Why did this happen? Well, producing opium and heroin is a highly profitable business in Afghanistan. It's not just simply greed that is fueling the industry. Growing drugs is a legitimate way for many Afghanis to feed their families and make a living in a country whose economic infrastructure lags behind many neighboring nations. Was it a mistake that the United States and the UK invaded Afghanistan and deposed the Taliban? Certainly not. The Taliban was and still is an oppressive radical Islamic group that willingly harbors terrorists. But sometimes by getting rid of an oppressive group you create more problems than you began with. And unlike much of the situation in Iraq, heroin distribution and use has a marked effect on the world population.