UN: Afghan poppy crop down by 48%

UN: Afghan poppy crop down by 48%

Poppy production in Afghanistan plummeted by 48 per cent this year compared to 2009, according to the United Nations - but mostly because a blight destroyed thousands of hectares of the crop.

Afghanistan will produce roughly 4,000 tonnes of poppy in 2010, and the crop will provide a livelihood for nearly 250,000 families. It will be a lucrative one, too: The price of poppy increased markedly, with one hectare of the crop yielding $4,900, up from $3,600 last year.

Well here we go....

Now either this will be seen as a great thing. Or more fake CIA BS. Take your pic.

In either case I think this will help Russia with their huge Opium problem. So this actually means the price will go up and I somehow expect future drug wars breaking out most likely on the streets of many Russian cities. The Russian Mob will be out in force.

Stay tuned.

What worries me the most is all those Russian junkies assaulting the Afghan border when they need a fix....

reply to post by SLAYER69


Aw, poor diddems, their Poppy production is down.

Sure hope this is a factual statistic and not propaganda.

Burn those fields, burn those production facilities, and burn anyone growing that crap.

Raze it to the ground, take down the Golden Crescent, and go after the Golden Triangle next.

Columbia watch out you're next.

You know whats funny?

I can't find it now but I posted an article in a thread back in Feb or March on this very topic. A fungus that was attacking the poppies. It was from an obscure source so it wasn't taken very seriously at the time now months later it has shown to be true.

I thought it was the CIA destroying the crops with a engineered fungus. The timing was just too perfect. we had just went into Helmand province in force for the first time and he US was then getting a lot of heat over the explosion of heroin production in Afghanistan.
.

I am skeptical. This is an unregulated industry. Given the propensity of the regulated industries to "cook the books", i see no reason that the CIA (the "corporation" that sources the opium) would allow factual data to be released on this, either.

I would suspect this is a ploy to drive up prices so that they can improve profit margins. Same as the oil folks.

reply to post by SLAYER69


It's an interesting piece of news if it is real.

However, the potential for Al Jazeera to use this as propaganda, is still there.

Although for the life of me I cannot see them believing we in America give a damn.

Only people who shoot up Opium would cry about this as bad news.

Well, that and those who sell it, and I could give a rats behind about drug pushers.

If it is real I am smiling a mile wide.

Originally posted by SpartanKingLeonidas
reply to post by SLAYER69

 

It's an interesting piece of news if it is real.

However, the potential for Al Jazeera to use this as propaganda, is still there.

I found an older story on the subject from UPI.
I still can't find the one I quoted but here is the one I found. It's from May of this year

Afghan poppy crop hit by fungus

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.

Originally posted by SpartanKingLeonidas
Raze it to the ground, take down the Golden Crescent, and go after the Golden Triangle next.

Columbia watch out you're next.

You mentioned the "Golden Crescent" For those who do not know what we are talking about.

Within Asia, there's something called the "Golden Crescent", an area of illicit opium production. Afghanistan's major export is opium

UN report: Russia becomes largest market for Afghan heroin

Russia has become the biggest consumer of Afghan heroin with 21% of all the drug consumed in the world, as of the latest UN Office on Drugs and Crime report “Addiction, Crime and Insurgency” published on October 21.

According to the report, no less than 70 tons of heroin were trafficked to Russia in 2008 – that’s three times more than to the US and Canada together, and much more than previously estimated.

“It's being brought to Russia across the unprotected, transparent, and I would call them virtual borders, which were established after the collapse of the Soviet Union,” says Viktor Ivanov, head of the Federal Drug Control Service.

Heroin Trafficking

At present, opium poppies are mostly grown in Afghanistan, and in Southeast Asia, especially in the region known as the Golden Triangle straddling Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Yunnan province in the People's Republic of China.

The majority of the heroin consumed in the United States comes from Mexico and Colgmbia. Up until 2004, Pakistan was considered one of the biggest opium-growing countries.

Problems shooting up in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s opium production is used to fund insurgencies against invading U.S. forces. The money from Afghan opium trickles through everyone in the country — from farmers to police to government officials. Outside the country, Afghan opium production is a $65-billion industry.

Afghanistan is now responsible for 92 percent of the world’s opium supply.

Most of this supply is distributed throughout Pakistan, Russia, Europe and China. Russia has been hit hard with heroin use, as deaths resulting from AIDS have exploded from 1,900 people in 2001 to 40,000 in 2007, 80 percent of which resulted from dirty needles.

The U.S. war in Afghanistan strongly influences Russia’s rising heroin statistics. After the U.S. went into Afghanistan, the Taliban needed more weapons and money, facilitating increased opium production. Russian gangsters trade military weapons with Taliban drug lords for heroin, fueling the vicious cycle with the U.S. military.

Source

Russia is the world's top consumer of Afghan heroin. Last month President Dmitry Medvedev warned that high drug use amongst the country's youth was a threat to national security.

Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, said AIDS still carried heavy stigma in Russia and the government needed to address this.

"Something in society is malfunctioning and it is unable to talk aloud about weaknesses," he said.

11.5 kg of Heroin Seized in SE China

2009-08-25
Police in the southeastern Chinese border town of Zhuhai have recently seized 11.5 kilograms of heroin and arrested five suspected drug traffickers, Xinhua News Agency reports.

It is reportedly the biggest drug case in China in three years. Besides the large amount of heroin, police also confiscated other drugs, raw materials, a pistol and 97 bullets.

CHINESE NOW DOMINATE NEW YORK HEROIN TRADE

Sunday, August 9, 1987
Chinese criminals have taken over the dominant role in New York City's heroin industry, in a sudden restructuring of a multibillion-dollar enterprise that for decades was the preserve of the Mafia, Federal law-enforcement officials say.

Authorities say ethnic Chinese traffickers have recently been flooding the New York market with huge shipments of Southeast Asian heroin, or China White, which is among the world's purest.

reply to post by SLAYER69


here you go. That was my first thought...If its true, its a gmo modified fungus.

From the US Department of Agriculture to a secret UN laboratory in Uzbekistan, scientists are working to create genetically modified fungi which will eradicate the world's coca, opium poppies and marijuana plants

www.cannabisculture.com...
patriotic decor given

reply to post by burntheships


BINGO!!!!!!!!!

Where did you scare that up from?
That's something along the lines that I was looking forearlier.

EDIT to add: link?

reply to post by SLAYER69


Just a little side talent of mine...


Added the link. Now...onto the good stuff...

Killer fungus is no mystery to Afghan poppy growersAfghanistan's opium producers believe they are victims of a biological attack by the United States

www.guardian.co.uk...

reply to post by SLAYER69


Ok so...here is the question. Did this drive the Afghan people into the arms of the Taliban?

Reports of a "mysterious" fungus that has damaged opium poppy crops in Afghanistan have hit international headlines but on the ground the "mystery" is an open secret. Helmand farmers interviewed by BBC Pashto service for the early-morning news programme a couple of days ago were convinced that "they" had deliberately destroyed the crops.

The pronoun "they" is a euphemism for US secret agents, whom farmers suspect of having sprayed the crops with the fungus. www.guardian.co.uk...

reply to post by burntheships


Great find. I knew I had read something on that a while ago.
I'm glad you found it. That one article is from 1999 way before 9/11 or the invasion of Afghanistan.

reply to post by SLAYER69


Oh wait, there is more! Take a look at this....

Report Calls on the UN Biodiversity
Convention to Stop Dangerous US
Fungus Experiments
(Hamburg & Seattle, 2 May 00) In a detailed report released
today, the Sunshine Project, a new international non-profit
dedicated to exposing abuses of biotechnology, calls on the upcoming Nairobi meeting of the UN Biodiversity
Convention to halt the USA’s dangerous experiments with fungi designed to kill narcotic crops.
TARGETED AT DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OF ASIA AND THE AMERICAS
Intended to kill opium poppy, coca, and cannabis plants, the microbes present risks to human health and
biodiversity. There is imminent danger that a highly infectious fungus will be deliberately released in Andean
and Amazonian centres of diversity. The US-backed fungi have already been used experimentally on opium
poppy and cannabis in the US and in Central Asia.

Ok, the first article I posted is from 1999, the second from May 2010. This report here is from 2000. So, hard telling how long this project has been in the works.

My conspiracy mind tells me that the 10 year period of use...and they are just now all experiencing a loss of crop?
I dont know...what do you think?

Is there some new factor that would say....be a benefit to the U.S. so they send in "the company" to really knock it down?


www.sunshine-project.org...

reply to post by burntheships



Once they tried Agent Orange on Mexican pot grows. The Mexicans still sold the plants once they were sprayed. They just harvested sooner, causing low quality plants to be sold. This caused people to smoke more of the stuff that had Agent Orange sprayed on it.

Made a lot of people really sick. Enough so that it was a VERY shortlived program.

Don't these idiots ever learn? You know...the law of unintended consequences?

With the drive towards socialized medicine, the people who say, "Oh well, they shouldn't smoke pot" will be crying foul when they have to pay to care for the sickly, fungal infected potheads. Fungi are well known cancer causers.

reply to post by burntheships



I seriously think the Russian MOB is involved

Pre-US-2003

Between 1993 and 1995, the annual amount of seized narcotic substances increased from thirty-five tons to ninety tons. At present approximately 5 million people use illicit drugs in Russia. Russia has the biggest heroin problem along with Iran and Estonia. Russia is a major consumer of opiates.

The trafficking routes have been laid out years/decades before NATO got into the picture.

Russia is one of the two major drug producers along with Morocco, and one of the five major drug trafficking entry points along with Iran, Turkey, Italy and Spain in the Mediterranean region. The drug trafficking also involves the supply of opium, heroin and marijuana from Central Asia and the Golden Crescent, comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Russian drug rings work with the Sicilian mafia and the Colombian drug traffickers to import and distribute.

Take a good hard look at the maps posted below. I'll let them speak for themselves.

Many local Russian distributors have connections with criminal organizations in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Ukraine. According to the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, a regular trafficking route exists from Tajikistan to Rostov-on-Don via Turkmenistan, and from there to Western Europe

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/981ad67e11b3.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1228b61870cb.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


True that!
Know someone who was in enforcement, he told me that a large percentage of that contraband
had chemicals of one sort or another.

Of course, the office in charge has no ignorance as to the end result of the reduction of crops...
I am wondering is that the intended effect? I dont know, just thinking outloud.

reply to post by SLAYER69


Ah hah! Well, Bingo for you!!!

What do you think, take a look here...

www.wired.com...

And also you might find the first very long comment interesting!

reply to post by burntheships


Well I found this rather interesting.


Wednesday, 11 July 2001

Corrupt Russian officers profit in heroin trade

The flow of heroin through Tajikistan, a mountainous, war-torn and deeply corrupt republic sharing a 700-mile border with Afghanistan, has led to a slow burning political scandal in Russia.

Some 60 tonnes of heroin a year pass through Tajikistan with the assistance of part of the Tajik political elite and senior Russian military officers stationed as members of a Russian force on the border according to Anton Surikov, a Russian official with close links to Russian military intelligence.