Tashkent   

Despite the Taliban’s claim of 95% reduction in opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, drug smuggling in the region is on the rise, which can be explained by the ongoing production of opium in the country.

Atageldy Yazliev, the director of the Central Asian Regional Information Coordination Center for Combating Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances, and their Precursors (CARICC), made this statement, TASS reports.

“According to the estimates of international experts, as a result of the Taliban’s ban on opium poppy cultivation, the cultivation area has decreased by 95%. Nevertheless, CARICC statistics indicate an increase in drug smuggling in the region, which may be related to the realization of opium or heroin stocks from previous years’ harvests or indicates the ongoing production of drugs in Afghanistan,” noted Yazliev, speaking in the lower house of the parliament of Kazakhstan. Yazliev mentioned that the volume of seized drugs in the member countries of the organization increased by more than 100% in the first nine months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.

During the first nine months of 2023, the number of drug-related crimes in the member countries increased by 8.3%, and crimes related to drug trafficking increased by 8.9%. In Russia, in particular, drug-related crimes increased by 8.8%, according to Yazliev.

Overall, in Central Asia, “the drug situation is characterized by an increase in the production of opiates and methamphetamine in Afghanistan, the emergence of new types of synthetic drugs, and methods of their distribution,” Yazliev pointed out.

He also reported that in the CARICC countries, 230 underground laboratories were identified in the first nine months, mostly in Russia, manufacturing synthetic and other types of drugs, which is 12% more than identified in a similar period in 2022.

“As a result of the activities of these laboratories, relatively cheap local amphetamines appear, displacing more expensive drugs from the market,” emphasized Yazliev.

According to the UN, Afghanistan covers 80% of the world’s demand for opium.

In 1996, a Memorandum of Understanding on Regional Cooperation in Drug Control was signed in Tashkent by representatives of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Russia joined the Memorandum in 1998, and Azerbaijan joined in 2001. The need to adopt the Memorandum was prompted by the increasing drug expansion from Afghanistan. In 2004, the CARICC was established in Almaty to develop the provisions of the Memorandum.

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Courtesy: Central Asian Light (Posted on December 11, 2023)

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Geneva

The 2022 opium crop in Afghanistan is the most profitable in years with cultivation up by nearly a third amid soaring prices, and despite the multiple humanitarian and economic crises facing the country and its Taliban rulers, said the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan – latest findings and emerging threats, is the first report on the illicit opium trade since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.

The authorities banned all cultivation of opium poppy and all narcotics under strict new laws, in April 2022.

Opium is the essential ingredient for manufacturing the street drug heroin, and the class of medical prescription opioids which millions rely on for pain medication worldwide. Opioids have also been increasingly abused, causing widespread addiction issues in countries such as the United States.

This year’s harvest was largely exempted from the decree, said UNODC, and farmers in Afghanistan must now decide on planting opium poppy for next year amid continued uncertainty about how the Taliban will enforce the ban.

Sowing of the main 2023 opium crop must be done by early November this year.

Opiate limbo

“Afghan farmers are trapped in the illicit opiate economy, while seizure events around Afghanistan suggest that opiate trafficking continues unabated,” said UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly, launching the new survey.

“The international community must work to address the acute needs of the Afghan people, and to step up responses to stop the criminal groups trafficking heroin and harming people in countries around the world.”

According to UNODC findings, cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan increased by 32 per cent over the previous year, to 233,000 hectares – making the 2022 crop the third largest area under cultivation since monitoring began.

Hub in Helmand

Cultivation continued to be concentrated in the southwestern parts of the country, which accounted for 73 per cent of the total area, and registering the largest crop increase.

In Helmand province, one-fifth of all arable land was dedicated to opium poppy cultivation.

Income triples

Opium prices have soared following the announcement of the cultivation ban in April. Income made by Afghan farmers from opium sales more than tripled, from $425 million in 2021 to $1.4 billion in 2022.

The new figure is equivalent to 29 per cent of the entire 2021 value of the agricultural sector. In 2021, the farm-gate value of opiates was only worth some nine per cent of the previous year’s agricultural output.

However, the increase in income did not necessarily translate into purchasing power, the UNDP survey notes, as inflation has soared during the same period, with the price of food increasing by 35 percent on average.

Yields down

Following a drought at the start of this year, opium yields declined from an average of 38.5 kilograms per hectare (kg/ha), in 2021, to an estimated 26.7 kg/ha this year, resulting in a harvest of 6,200 tons – 10 per cent smaller than in 2021.

The 2022 harvest can be converted into 350-380 tons of heroin of export quality, said UNDP, at 50-70 per cent purity.

Traffickers plough on

Seizure events collected by UNODC´s Drugs Monitoring Platform suggest that opiate trafficking from Afghanistan has been ongoing without interruption since August 2021. Afghan opiates supply some 80 per cent of all opiate users in the world.

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Courtesy: UN News (Posted on Nov.2, 2022)

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