Real cost of drugs

Jesus

The real cost of drugs

Afghanistan alone produces roughly ninety percent of the world’s opium and heroin. This market produces two billion in revenue to the small mountain country and most of this money goes to insurgent organizations like the Taliban. As a precaution the government has attempted to stop the production of Opium and the funding of the terrorist groups by eradicating the poppy fields of many farmers in the Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, according to Frontline documentary, Opium Brides These new steps toward the end of illicit drug trade have had adverse effects on the farmers and people of the region. The Taliban offers locals money in order to plant and harvest the poppy and many people take the money because they are poor. Once the government comes in to destroy the harvest they are left with nothing. As a way to regain lost money the Taliban take children from those who are in debt, as a way to compensate their losses. Many stories have been told of armed men coming in the night to take sons and daughters. NATO and the Afghani Government are only perpetuating the traffic and abduction of young children in Afghanistan, by attempting to end the problem of drugs in their country.

Najibullah Quraishi a PBS reporter searches deep in the country of Afghanistan for answers to why children are being given away. On his journey he is taken to a safe haven for young girls who have escaped being taken away as an opium bride. Amina is fourteen years old and she now lives in a shelter after escaping. She was to be sold to a seventy year old man to pay back her fathers debts. Amina says that her father took money from the Taliban and promised her to be married to one of them. She is not living with out a family as a refugee in a shelter because of the drug trade in Afghanistan.

Other locals are against the sale and production of the poppy harvest, working in unison with the government to take out Taliban run farms. A government official states, “the locals are happy to work with the government to destroy the poppy and even if they weren’t it is the law.” Although there are some working with the government to eradicate the Opium production those who have taken money from the insurgent organizations are very unhappy. These people know what will happen if they don’t yield a certain amount from their harvest. An elderly woman, her name not stated in the frontline documentary, pleads with the government official saying, “ leave me a patch or two for my sons sake.”

As the Afghani government goes in to destroy whole fields of the poppy, NATO peacekeeping troop under the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) is there with armored vehicles and professional military to protect the government and their allies from the threat of the Taliban. Admiral Tony Johnstone-Burt a member of the ISAF counter narcotic teams says it is a delicate situation. It is not part of the ISAF’s mandate to take out the poppy fields; the Afghans themselves do this part. Although they play a large part in the safety of those killing the fields they do not partake in the actual destruction.

The facts of the situation are so; many farmers cannot create a basis of living off anything besides the growth and harvest of the poppy plant. This is not without trying. An alternative livelihood program is been instated to help farmers switch from opium to wheat or barley. The famers say that they struggle to bring in money with other crops. The price of opium is nearly two thousand five hundred dollars a kilo and not many other crops yield that kind of money.

Though to westerners the thought of trading children for debts is barbarous, it has been going on for quite sometime outside the opium trade. Afghani people often settle their debts by giving away children. Afghan people in far away regions give their children away if the village elders agree that

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