Afghan Poppy Crop Hit by Fungus - There are Conflicting Views - Which Side do you Believe?

Afghan Poppy Crop Hit by Fungus

www.upi.com

KABUL, Afghanistan, May 13 (UPI) -- A serious fungal disease has hit Afghanistan's poppy crop, which could reduce this year's opium output by a quarter from last year, a U.N. official said.

The infection has affected half of the Afghan poppy crop, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told the BBC. Afghanistan accounts for 92 percent of the world's opium.

The fungus attacks the root of the plant and causes the opium capsule to wither....

(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 5/13/2010 by UberL33t]

Now, reflect back to these stories.

Most recently:

Afghan poppy harvest is next challenge for U.S. Marines

MARJAH, Afghanistan — U.S. Marine Sgt. Brad Vandehei stood on the edge of the small opium poppy field that serves as a central helicopter landing zone for the new military compound that's rising nearby.

"Those are poppies, sir?" Vandehei, 25, of Green Bay, Wis., asked Maj. David Fennell as they gazed at the spiked young plants that should be ready for harvest next month. "Let's burn it down, sir."

Fennell was scoping things out for another reason, however: That morning, the poppy farmer turned up with a dozen neighbors to complain about the Marines transforming his lucrative field into a rural helipad.

and earlier on...

State Department Pushing Aerial Poppy Eradication in Afghanistan

Despite little evidence that a massive program of aerial coca crop fumigation has worked in Colombia, and despite serious reservations by the Pentagon and by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the State Department, backed by the White House, is quietly pushing the expansion of aerial poppy eradication into Afghanistan as a way to fight the Taliban.

Soon Afghanistan, which produces 92 percent of the world's opium and 80 percent of the world's heroin, may be the target of a program of Plan Colombia-style aerial crop eradication. With the Afghan war entering a tenuous new phase, the stakes are high: Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he will send an additional 3,200 American troops to Afghanistan in March as a defense against a possible spring offensive by Taliban insurgents. The additional troops will come on top of the 27,000 American troops already there as part of both the 50,000-strong NATO force as well as a separate American contingent.

and this...

US army to wage war on drugs by wiping out Afghan poppy fields

America will take its war on drugs to a new level next year, by using US ground troops to help eradicate Afghan poppy fields, in a sign of growing frustration at the British-led efforts to curb opium cultivation.

Just days after Nato defense ministers agreed to let their 50,000-strong force target heroin labs and smuggling networks, The Mail has learned that a handful of American soldiers are training to take part in eradication missions, as well.

It is the first time foreign troops will put 'boots on the ground' to support poppy eradication in Afghanistan.

and this...

AFGHANISTAN: Poppy eradication: The issues, the players and the strategies

The international community and the Afghan government are committed to seeing poppy cultivation eradicated from Afghanistan. As the largest producer of opiates, accounting for at least 75 percent of global production, Afghanistan is a major concern for those seeking to eradicate heroin supply. With forecasts suggesting the 2004 harvests will show record levels of opium production, the government and international donors are redoubling their efforts to curb this illicit, but lucrative, economy.

Now all of a sudden their crop has this fungus, seems their campaign to eradicate these crops are paying off. The previous attempts at the Coca Crops in Columbia must have been upgraded.

It seems they have found a fungus that works very well on the poppy fields. Equip some Drones with a chem-sprayer and do a couple laps over the fields at night and they'll be wiped out in no time.



www.upi.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Kinda funny how prior to 9/11 the Taliban irradicated the poppy crops..

Ok, so the US is going to get rid of it considering the CIA is the biggest runner of this crap in the world? come on man, are we idiots or are we idiots..

You know why this crap happens the people on this planet sleep whilenobody pays attn..

Oh well whatever... At least someone isnt invading my country in the name of freedom and decrapocy yet..

Are there any stats on how much of this opium is used for legitimate purposes? Pharmaceutical painkillers etc. Perhaps a push by big pharma to find a way of geTting people addicted to a new wonder drug? Or simply a way to drive prices up on the already available painkillers.

reply to post by ThichHeaded


Okay, since you brought it up let's look at "that side of the fence".

Brother of Afghan Leader Said to Be Paid by C.I.A.

The ties to Mr. Karzai have created deep divisions within the Obama administration. The critics say the ties complicate America’s increasingly tense relationship with President Hamid Karzai, who has struggled to build sustained popularity among Afghans and has long been portrayed by the Taliban as an American puppet. The C.I.A.’s practices also suggest that the United States is not doing everything in its power to stamp out the lucrative Afghan drug trade, a major source of revenue for the Taliban.

which would tie directly into this article...

Afghanistan produces 40 times more heroin

January 22, 2010

Why should the international community be spending two hundred and fifty billion dollars of its taxpayers’ hard-earned money to perform state-building in Afghanistan when this country now produces 40 times more heroin than ten years ago and when corruption accounts for 2.5 billion dollars a year for NATO-trained officials to get rich?

A recent UN report, “Corruption in Afghanistan: Bribery as Reported by Victims” issued by the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) reveals that for the vast majority of the citizens of Afghanistan, the worst problem is corruption and not insecurity, despite the fact that this is becoming worse by the day. The report was based upon a survey involving 7,600 people in 12 provincial capitals and 1,600 villages.

which in turn ties into these type of articles, that you'll probably be seeing more of in the future...

Heroin dealing cases on the rise in Tippecanoe County, Indiana

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - We may be in a recession, but the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor said one underground economy is alive and well.

Prosecutor Pat Harrington said he has seen a steady increase in drug crimes over the past couple of years. He said these drug dealers work like any other business trying to set up shop.

"The gangs have entered this area. They have cornered the drug market, and they are pushing these drugs out to the streets," he said.

Harrington said the demand for drugs is high.

and this...

Cheap heroin blamed for addiction increase

The face of the heroin addict has changed. The Mexican drug wars have made heroin cheaper, cheaper even than beer.

That is making the face of the new heroin user younger and maybe even disturbingly familiar.

It's easy to close your eyes if you believe drug-related violence in Mexico could never effect you, not if you live on the East Coast of the United States, in a safe, middle class neighborhood.

Yeah this article says Mexico, but where do you think it originated?

and this...

Heroin deaths on the rise

Chicagoland is reeling from a spike in heroin deaths over the past several months. The drug—a new kind with a higher potency—is making its way from Asia, Central America and South America to the city and being distributed throughout the area.

In Will County alone, there have been 12 deaths this year from heroin use and abuse, said Will County coroner Pat O’Neil. In 2008, the county recorded 14 deaths from heroin and two “suspected heroin-related deaths.”

“[Heroin use] is replacing coc aine in Will County,” O’Neil said. “So, it must be more readily available, and it’s highly addictive.”

and it's not just in the U.S. ...

Increase In Heroin Availability In Australia Posing Risk Of HIV

The Australian National Council on Drugs on Monday said that increased amounts of heroin entering the country from the Middle East and Asia could contribute to the spread of HIV among injection drug users, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The council's Asia-Pacific Committee reported that heroin trafficking has increased and that border detections of the drug were the highest on record in 2006 and 2007.

and here...

Russian Blames West For Heroin Rise

The head of Russia's anti-narcotics federal agency says that British troops in Helmand Province are not doing enough to stem production of the world's deadliest drug.

"Sixty percent of all opiates in the world are produced in the area that the British forces are responsible for," said Viktor Ivanov.

"There were 25 hectares of opium in 2004. Now there are 90,000. This shows you how effective they are."

So which side do you believe?



[edit on 5/13/2010 by UberL33t]

Are they trying to drive the price up?

Isn't that what they normally do?

reply to post by realist00


from one of the articles in my last post:

The face of the heroin addict has changed. The Mexican drug wars have made heroin cheaper, cheaper even than beer.

Apparently the cost is next to nothing, now the question to ask is, why are they making this drug so easy to get? Knowing the addictive and fatal effects, some would lean towards the NWO's plan of population control. If I had to guess that is.

Here is a really in depth 2002 write-up in the New York Times that puts Heroin, and the unquestionable lucrativeness that this drug has for the main players in the trade, into perspective.

Heroin INC

a small excerpt...

Xiamin Dwan Swan and her husband, Ju -- like the other 40 families who live in this hilltop hamlet in Myanmar -- have been farming opium for generations, ever since the British introduced poppy cultivation to these parts more than a century ago. It's not a lucrative living, judging by the straw huts, mud floors and barefoot children, but it is the only one that the residents of Chaw Haw have ever known.

The ritual begins every September, when the steep fields are burned and the poppy seeds scattered. They thrive in these altitudes, just about the only crop that does, but it is not only a quirk of climate that allows them to do so. A key competitive advantage of this rugged landscape is that it lies beyond the reach of any law-enforcement agency. As is the case in the world's other opium-producing regions -- the guerrilla-controlled jungles of Colombia, the lawless fiefs of Afghanistan -- central authorities have no say here. Power is exercised by renegade insurgent groups with prickly notions of territorial sovereignty, not to mention private armies 15,000 to 20,000 strong.

By February, Xiamin Dwan Swan and her husband begin the harvest by scoring each poppy pod with a needle-like knife. A creamy gum oozes from the cuts, and once it turns black it is scraped off with a crescent-shaped tool that has been in her family ever since she can remember. It is painstaking work, and for their labor the Dwan Swans earn $600 annually, barely enough to feed their children, three pigs and two ornery dogs. Brokers come from the valley in early March to purchase the raw opium gum, which sells for about 1,500 yuan per vis -- the equivalent of about $135 a kilogram. (A vis is a unit of measure equal to 1.6 kilos, or about 3 pounds.)

''I don't know who buys our harvest,'' Xiamin says, which is the smart answer, but probably not true, given that she and her husband have most likely been dealing with the same broker for the past 20 years. Nor does she claim to know what happens to her harvest once the brokers collect it from Chaw Haw and other villages. This is probably true, since refineries buy their opium gum from the brokers rather than risking exposure by dealing directly with hundreds of separate suppliers.

Reading all these articles, I can see that although Afghanistan has quite the production of poppies. They can seemingly grow anywhere. Although most of the worlds Heroin come from the Middle East and Asia according to some sources through perusing the internet.

The fact that they can grow anywhere though, and as the articles above have shown, it is and will seemingly always be in high demand and a very lucrative cash crop...unfortunately.

This also raises the question(s), if the U.S. (C.I.A.) is in fact contributing, if not fully responsible for, the increased supply of Heroin worldwide, then who or what is causing the crops to fail? If so, that would mean their is an opposing "force" to the U.S. (C.I.A.)

or..

Is this just a "pull the wool over the sheeple's eyes" story to give the illusion that the U.S. and the Military are trying to combat the problem?

The article about Afghanistan producing 40 times more heroin makes it really hard for one to believe that we're doing anything of the sort.

reply to post by realist00

Are they trying to drive the price up?

Isn't that what they normally do?

No, that's step 2. Step 1 is establishing a large enough consumer base. Right now, they are targeting the very young. school-age kids. That's why the price is so low.

Russia would be a prime candidate for this fungus.

They have a increasing heroin problem in there country.
They have problems with islamic terrorist.
They lost a lot of troops in afghanistan.
Starting a fungus and blaming the US would help there cause and make the US look bad.

Plus someone is supplying the taliban with a lot of ammo.
The taliban should have run out of ammo a couple years ago.
Some things like RPG rounds are only made in a few countries like China, Russia ECT.

Whoever is responsible for it is actually incredibly irresponsible! If only the fungus affected poppies and nothing else, but that is not how it works.

What happens when the fungus spreads to people, livestock and other crops? Seeing as it is probably a fungus developed or mutated in a lab, who knows what its ultimate effects will be?

Do I believe this was a random act of nature, no way...

This is going to be a bad thing, while I do not condone Heroin usage, the poppy that produces the opium also is used to derive such things as Codeine, Oxycodone (Percocet, Oxycontin), Hydrocodone (Vicodin, Vicoprofen), Morphine, etc etc..

Far be it from me to say that htese are needed drugs, but I can honestly say without my Vicodin right now i'd be in tremendous pain...

The Military is using weather modification in Afghanistan. The mold is from this activity. The same is happening to crops all over the world, due to the Chemtrail agenda.

Hell, the government wouldn't purposefully screw up their cash cow.

[edit on 14-5-2010 by 911stinks]

ahh, the perils of monoculture

that's what you get for growing the stuff nonstop on every available patch of dirt. maybe they should GM it but then, that would likely reduce the yield - or result in outright crop failure - as previous attempts in soy and cotton have shown.

( www.centerforfoodsafety.org...)


no, really if you believe the actual organisation behind NATO and the US forces is doing anything to reduce heroin production, you're posting on the wrong forum.

You are trying to connect dots that are not related to eachother.

I believe whats true.

Meaning, it's a known fact prior to 9/11 Heroin was much more expensive than it is now. The Taliban destroyed the industry there for a while. And you would think that if the Taliban were going to war with the west through terrorism, they would have done some "fund raising" prior to that.

Now, after 10 years, Heroin is the cheapest it has ever been. It's dirt cheap.

Something smells here, meaning the lack of the smell of burning poppies.

I think that one of our military MASS-equipped C-130's thought it was spraying poppy fields with Monsato fertilizer but had actually forgotten to swap the Corexit in its tanks that it was using in the GoM .

Oh wait...wrong topic... Where am i?

I'm pretty sure we have our grubby fingers in the poppy pie, so to speak.

Aside from anything else though, this is sad for the farmers who rely on this for a living. I have been to other countries where local rural people harvest drugs and when you are there they really are just another type of plant, if you didn't know any different it would appear to be just another crop.