We Spent $7.6 Billion To Crush The Afghan Opium Trade—And It's Doing Better Than Ever

Interesting how our government throws billions of dollars at the war on drugs, yet drugs are not going away.

Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is at record levels, according to a new report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. That's despite more than a decade of American efforts to knock out the Afghan drug trade—at a cost of roughly $7.6 billion. SIGAR's data, which comes from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), shows that Afghan opium cultivation nearly tripled between 1994 and 2013. More than 780 tons of heroin or morphine could be produced with the current crop, whose total value is estimated at nearly $3 billion, up from $2 billion in 2012.

source

a reply to: AlaskanDad

That's because the drug war pays for the CIA's black budget, among other things I would imagine.

Same thing with Fast And Furious in the US for guns to Mexico.

There's a really good reason that America keeps this imagine of 'anti drug' while doing NOTHING to actually stem the tide of it at the source.

The drug war is a population control program. Pure and simple.

~Tenth

It was being smuggled into the country in coffins of returning soldiers . it is what the war was about the control of the drug trade that is why soldiers were protecting the crops because the taliban wanted to outlaw it

Crushed?
We probably gave them fertilizer and pesticides to encourage a better poppy yield.

You mean the USA has invested $7.6 Billion into securing the Afghan Opium Trade...

Also, another thing to think about.

Since the US/NATO began assisting with security, the poppy trade in Iran exploded.

They now have one of the highest rates of heroin addiction and use. It's a destabilization tactic if you ask me.

~Tenth

A pattern is emerging...

War on Poverty=more poverty.
War on terror=more terrorists.
War on Drugs=More Drugs.

The scary thing is the USgov recently decleared war on Ebola.

In the late 60s and 70s the opium capital of the world was southeast Asia... where coincidentally the US military was engaged.
Now the opium capital of the world is Afghanistan... where coincidentally the US military is engaged.

Get it?

No...The US spent 7.6 billion dollars to TAKE OVER the opium trade.

a reply to: thesmokingman

I am sure knowing the us government that 7.6 billion was spent wisely eradicating poppies,



or maybe not. LOL

Reading all of the posts thus far I find myself feeling that the deception of billions of dollars thrown to stop the opium trade is almost taken as a given by ATS. How does the general public not take notice? Or do they and realize that nothing can be done?

Heroin during Nam, crack during the Reagan years pushed into ghettos, heroin AGAIN at epidemic proportions since Afghanistan...I went on a five mile walk in rural PA and found two syringes and I wasn't looking and I doubt diabetics just toss them out the window of the car.

The question is, why can every day people put this together and see the collusion between shadowy elements that use government agencies to push debilitating drugs on their own population, and that media is oblivious.

What can we do? Really?

It sucks to see so many people affected. Families broken apart. Crimes committed for the next fix. But I feel helpless. Sure no one makes someone else try illicit drugs, but when they become cheap and prevalent, the likelihood rises.
Sigh...I don't know and it frustrates me.

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse
A pattern is emerging...

War on Poverty=more poverty.
War on terror=more terrorists.
War on Drugs=More Drugs.

The scary thing is the USgov recently decleared war on Ebola.

Right, what they meant to say was WAR WITH DRUGS
Right that if the government says war on anything you can bet that we will see more of whatever they declared a war on.

Heroin Gains Popularity as Cheap Doses Flood the U.S.

a reply to: seasoul

That girl is the truest patriot I have ever seen. Its this kind of support that makes me proud of our boys overseas doing what they do, bringing only the finest heron back home.

To all the troops out there, she no doubt salutes you, thanks guys!.

There's perhaps a thousand people at the very tip-top who are responsible for this, and all the other plagues that we have to deal with, from the threat of nuclear proliferation and nuclear power plants that are disasters waiting to happen, to the drug trade, to horrific differences between the haves and have-nots, etc.

We all know who these people are, and we treat them like elder statesmen and honored authorities. They wear suits and ties and have private jets. They hire goons to protect themselves from those of us who have figured it out. They are politicians who are mass murderers and we let them build private libraries and provide them with pensions for life out of our tax money.

Until you're ready to indict, arrest, and convict these people, the downward spiral will continue.

We're being led by psychopaths and that's abundantly obvious to anyone willing to pay attention for just a few minutes.

a reply to: signalfire

Oh hell no. Read the threads here on ATS. All we need to do is get the damned Democrats out and the Republicans back in control and everything will be skittles and rainbows. Just ask around. They'll tell you. Easy peasy.

originally posted by: Dabrazzo
a reply to: seasoul

That girl is the truest patriot I have ever seen. Its this kind of support that makes me proud of our boys overseas doing what they do, bringing only the finest heron back home.

To all the troops out there, she no doubt salutes you, thanks guys!.

And there's nothing hotter than a heroin junkie!

Sometimes i wish weed were as addictive as tobacco and other sh1t that they love to sell for us, then we would very likely see weed sold in every dam stores already.. Now they proply figuring out how to ruin weed with chems and sh1t and then hit it on the markets around the world.

a reply to: daaskapital


That is exactly what I was going to post until I read your post.

Weren't those billions of dollars spent on patrolling, securing, processing and transporting opium? It's hard to maintain control over poppies when you just can't find a good excuse to roll in and take over a country!!!!