Afghan opium production down, but prices rise

The latest UN Office on Drugs and Crime report on Afghan opium production says that total opium poppy cultivation did not change between 2009 and 2010, remaining at 123,000 hectares. Ninety-eight per cent was in nine provinces in the south and west of the country, indicating a strong link between insurgency and illicit crop cultivation.
However, total opium production was estimated at 3,600 tonnes, down 48 per cent on last year, due to a disease that affected the crop. In total 20 provinces that were opium-free in 2009 remained so this year.
Income to farmers from the crop amounted to $604 million, up from £438 million last year. The reason for the increase in price was the crop disease mentioned above. With smaller amounts of opium available, the price rose. With wheat prices also falling, it meant that the discrepancy between opium and wheat prices - at 6:1 - grew wider, which could encourage more farmers to return to opium production in future.
Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC, on launching the report in Vienna today, said "We need a broader strategy to support farmers throughout Afghanistan by providing them with access to markets and a secure environment. Stability and security, combined with sustainable alternative development opportunities, will give farmers the chance to make a living without resorting to opium poppy cultivation".

Drug use rising in Afghanistan says UN report

Almost a million people in Afghanistan - roughly eight per cent of the population between 15 and 64 years old - are drug addicts, according to a report from the UN's Office of Drug Control.
The report says that many Afghans "seem to be taking drugs as a kind of self-medication against the hardships of life". But, as the report points out, this is causing greater misery by creating behavioural, social and health problems, as well as petty crime, traffic and workplace accidents.
Shockingly, the report reveals that around half of all drug users in the north and south of the country give opium to their children, thus condemning them to a life of addiction.
Only ten per cent of those surveyed had received any form of drug treatment, although 90 per cent felt they were in need of it.
The report warns that there is likely to have been substantial under-reporting of drug use, particularly amongst women and children where cultural issues make it difficult to obtain accurate information.
The survey of more than 2,600 drug users and those with knowledge of drug use in their communities follows on from the first survey in 2005. Since then, there has been a massive increase in the use of opium, heroin and other opiates.
Since the last report the number of regular opium users has leapt from 150,000 to 230,000. Heroin users have risen from 50,000 to 120,000. The highest prevalence is found in the main poppy growing areas in the north and south of the country.
The archetypal Afghan drug user is a 28-year-old father of three, married but not cohabiting with his wife, who resides with his extended family in a self-owned house or apartment. He is probably unemployed, is illiterate and has little education. If employed, he probably works as a farmer or unskilled labourer. His monthly earning are less than $120.
He will be spending just over $2 a day on heroin or $1.60 a day on opium. The survey estimates that drug users in Afghanistan spend around $300 million on their drug habit every year. About six per cent of respondents sold themselves for sex to provide money for their habit, leading to fears of a possible HIV epidemic among at-risk populations.
Many people began their drug addiction while refugees. For example, up to 40 per cent of heroin and opium users began to use the drugs while refugees in Iran.
The report does not discuss the financing behind the drug trade - which is said to involve senior members of the Karzai Administration - nor its impact on Taliban finances. But it does beg the question why there has not been a national campaign to highlight the impact of drugs on Afghan society. How do the Moslems of the Taliban justify the huge damage they are doing to their own people? It is well known that the bulk of opium and heroin produced in Afghanistan is consumed locally or in the neighbouring states of Pakistan, Iran and central Asia. Where are the fatwas condemning this murderous trade?

Afghanistan drowning in corruption

It may be one of the world's poorest countries, but Afghans had to pay out $2.5 billion in bribes over the past 12 months – equivalent to almost a quarter (23 per cent) of Afghanistan’s GDP.
When added to the revenue generated by the opium trade in 2009 - estimated at $2.8 billion - this adds up to about half the country’s GDP.
The figures come from Corruption in Afghanistan: Bribery as reported by the Victims, published this week by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
To make things worse, in Afghanistan those entrusted with upholding the integrity of the law are most guilty of violating it.
Between 10-20 per cent had to pay bribes to judges, prosecutors, doctors and members of the government. A kickback is so commonly sought (and paid) to speed up administrative procedures, that more than a third of the population (38 per cent) thinks that this is the norm.
Just over half (52 per cent) of adult Afghans had to pay at least one bribe to a public official during the last 12 months. On average, victims of bribery reported they had to pay around five kickbacks per year. In three-quarters of cases bribes are paid in cash and the average amount paid was US$158 - in a country where average annual income is less than $500.
According to the UNODC, the sectors most affected by bribery are the police, courts and customs. When such officers are contacted by citizens they request a bribe in around half of all cases. Demands for bribes were slightly less frequent from municipal and provincial officers, members of the Government and land officers.
The amounts paid in bribes differ between categories of public officials: at the lower end (less than US$100 per bribe) are teachers, doctors and nurses. On average, officials from the police, local authorities, tax/revenue agency and land agencies requested bribes between $100-200. Judges, prosecutors, members of the Government and customs officers are at the higher end of the scale, with average bribes higher than US$200.
Public officials usually request bribes to speed up administrative procedures or to make their finalization possible.
The pervasiveness of such practices makes many citizens deeply worried: when asked to select the most prominent problem for the country, 59 per cent of those questioned mentioned corruption, followed by insecurity (54 per cent) and unemployment (52 per cent).
Corruption is perceived to be on the rise by many citizens, especially in rural areas: 80 per cent of rural dwellers reported that in their eyes corruption had significantly increased over the last five years.
The information for the UNODC report was gathered though interviews with 7,600 people in 12 provincial capitals and more than 1,600 villages around Afghanistan and is therefore statistically significant. The report includes a number of actual cases of bribery from interviewed citizens which provide a vivid portrait of the many forms of corruption common in Afghanistan:
"We sell different goods on the streets here. The head of the police for this area has appointed a person who is responsible for collecting money from us and give it to him."
"[The] permit office for the municipality is another corrupt department. Officials want about $18,000 from traders when they want to start a new business."
"Police heads are taking a percentage from each payroll of their subordinates."
"The mayor has distributed plots to his family members and he has taken a number of shops in the commercial markets for approving the construction of the building."
‘There are people known as Employed on Commission in front of each government building…They approach people saying that they can solve any kind of issue in a short time and then they quote the price. For example, if you need a passport or the driving licence or paying taxes and customs duties they can give you the final receipt which has been processed through all official channels in matter of days which takes usually weeks. Then he takes money and of course he will distribute it with those who are sitting inside offices."
"Officials from the Education Department are looting money for books and stationery that are supposed to be given to schools on provincial and districts levels."
Corruption is now high on the agenda of many donor countries and indeed President Karzai has said recently that his own government will fight all kinds of corruption. The signs so far are not good, with several of his nominees for Cabinet posts having reputations for bribe-taking.

Mystery of the missing opium crop

Some remarkable figures today in the 2009 Afghan Opium Survey from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime report. The main finding is that "the bottom is starting to fall out of the Afghan opium market", with opium cultivation down 22%, production down by 10% and prices at a ten-year low.
The number of poppy-free provinces have increased from 18 to 20 and drug seizures, while still tiny, are rising. Cultivation has fallen from 193,000 hectares to 123,000 hectares. Opium production is calculated at 6,900 tons. It has not fallen as sharply as poppy cultivation because farmers are extracting more opium per bulb. They do this by taking several crops from each bulb. This allows them to harvest 56kg of opium per hectare, compared to just 10kg/ha in the Golden Triangle of South East Asia.
The real mystery in these figures concerns the issues of stockpiles. World demand for opium is stable at around 5,000 tons - much less than what Afghanistan produces each year. UNODC Executive director Antonio Maria Costa says "Stockpiles of illicit opium now probably exceed 10,000 tons - enough to satisfy two years of world heroin addiction or three years of medical (morphine) prescription."
As a result of this over-supply, prices are falling. Wholesale prices in Afghanistan have fallen by a third in the past year, from $70/kg to $48/kg, the lowest prices for ten years. So despite higher yields per acre, farmers are receiving less per acre for their crop due to the falling prices.
Even at these lower prices farmers are receiving a total of $438 million at the farm gate. Once the opium is refined and sold on, the amount of money in this business multiplies many times. It is little wonder that stocks of opium are being kept off the market in order to shore up prices.
Opium production has become increasingly bound up with the Taliban who are known to tithe farmers and also to receive funds for protecting crops as they are delivered to laboratories where the raw opium is turned into heroin. Money from this business is then used to finance the insurgency - and to make various warlords and middlemen very rich indeed. Much of the financing for this business is done in the Gulf states, which is also where the proceeds are invested, mostly into real estate.
Some obvious questions that should be asked:
What is being done to find out who is stockpiling the excess opium?
Does it make sense to interdict or destroy the opium crop when it is already an over-supplied market. Won't that create more demand and help sustain the industry?
As I have asked before, where are the fatwas from religious scholars forbidding the opium trade? Do they not realise that the majority of victims are moslems? The UNODC report notes that there are now an estimated three million addicts in Iran alone.
Who is following the money trail? Don't banks in the Gulf have 'know your customer' rules?