Bridging of Afghanistan with the European Drug Market

Tajikistan is a country that you might have to look at a map to locate, it's a small country situated on the Afghan northern border. A landlocked country, 90 percent of Tajikistan's surface is covered by mountains; with Kyrgyzstan to the North, China to the east, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the South, and Uzbekistan to the west. Tajikistan suffered severely from a bloody civil war from 1992-97, creating a vacuum where conditions were perfect for lawlessness to fester; a perfect trade route to export Afghan opium for heroin production around the world. The ultimate goal for drug traffickers in Afghanistan is to transport their drugs to Russia and then on to the Western European markets. Traffickers have found a better route than Tajikistan for moving their product - Iran has become the channel to move the world's heroin. Russia, with a population of 142 million, is a large market for Afghan heroin and is a key stop in the bridging of Afghanistan with the European drug market.

An increase in stability has developed in Northern Afghanistan, making it very difficult to smuggle drugs into Tajikistan finding alternative routes is the natural course when ever obstructed. "The amount of drugs seized (in Tajikistan) in 2009 is noticeably smaller than in 2008", said Rustam Nazarov to Reuters, who is the head of Tajikistan's state Drug Control Agency, adding that some 4.5 tons of illicit drugs were intercepted in 2009. Afghanistan produces more opium than any other country and the world has a vested interest in stopping the flow of traffic; Tajikistan claims that they seize two-thirds of the drugs moving through the country; however, the number is believed to be much lower - around one-tenth of all the opium being smuggled is seized.

The United States and several other NATO allies have been trying to urge Afghani farmers to grow other cash crops like wheat. A very difficult task when you factor how long the farmers in that region have been cultivating opium poppies. "Last year, the United States spent about $300 million on agriculture projects there and projected spending this year is more than $425 million, not including separate funds from U.S. military coffers handed out by troops in the field", reports Reuters. A lot of money but will it be enough to stop the flow?

At the end of the day you would think that one country is happier, Tajikistan; the less smuggling that occurs would create more stability. The new U.S. funded Tajik-Afghan bridge makes Tajikistan still a viable trafficking option even if the amount crossing the border is reduced, heroin will still find its way to Russia via Tajikistan. Unfortunately, the stability of the entire region is contingent upon Afghanistan and their opium production. "Unfortunately the drugs situation in our country and the region as a whole solely depends on the situation in Afghanistan," Nazarov said to Reuters. "Only when there is law and order in Afghanistan there will be law and order in our country."

Veterans with Mental Health and Addiction Problems Belong in Treatment

In the late 60's and early 70's many soldiers returning from the Vietnam War came back home with mental health problems. Making the matter worse, many of those same soldiers had serious addiction problems as a result of trying to deal with what they experienced in war. Vietnam veterans did not receive the care that they needed forcing them into ineffective mental health clinics and jails; there were not many options for drug treatment in those days. Countless veterans suffered from our lack of understanding of mental disorders, including and especially addiction. Forty years later and America finds itself in a similar predicament, staggering numbers of soldiers are coming back from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with serious prescription drug problems, either to deal with pain or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This wave of addictions has veterans winding up in jails all over the country. Veterans with mental health and addiction problems belong in treatment, jails only exasperate the issue; if the United States does not provide its war veterans with adequate treatment, then we will see a repeat of history.

The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) released a report showing that current practices and policies in the United States has needlessly sent large numbers of handicapped and addicted veterans to jail. The report points out the advantages of drug courts and that treatment is always the better option. Drug and alcohol treatment has a much greater track record of keeping recidivism to a minimum. Guy Gambill, a long-time veterans' advocate, suggests, "In the aftermath of Vietnam, self-medication and its collateral behaviors landed tens of thousands of veterans in prison. This time, let’s be smarter than the problem". Unfortunately, many young veterans coming back from the war who get into trouble do not take advantage of drug court if it is offered; most states do not even have veteran drug court available.

Clearly, action needs to be taken to help or at least offer help to veterans coming back from the war addicted to prescription drugs and other substances. There is no reason why any non-violent addict should spend time in jail; the science is there to back up treatment as being more effective. The military will not provide any form of maintenance programs for their soldiers addicted to opiates despite the evidence world wide to support drugs like Suboxone and Methadone. What is certain is that the military still has a long way to go before soldiers and other veterans are adequately cared for and treated properly, hopefully this report will open peoples' eyes.

Today's post is written to honor our Veterans.

Afghan Heroin Is A Global Security Risk

The world has been suffering from the black cloud of heroin for a very long time. It seems like every day a new story comes to light regarding the problem of heroin throughout the world. It turns out that Russia has now found themselves in the grips of a heroin epidemic which is fueled by the vast poppy fields in Afghanistan. Viktor P. Ivanov, the top drug enforcement official in Russia, has been pleading for American support with this problem, especially since the Obama administration has decided to pull back on Poppy eradication in Afghanistan. Bush had begun the manual eradication process with very little success, shortly after the war started. Obama would like to interdict opium supplies and show them how to cultivate alternative crops, but, unfortunately there has been very little progress made. Russia believes that the Afghan heroin is a global security risk that needs to be addressed jointly by the two super powers.

Ivanov is the head of the federal drug control service and a trusted adviser to Prime Minister Putin. His belief, according to the New York Times, is that, "eradication programs had failed in Afghanistan because they were too weak, and that the United States should apply the more muscular methods it used recently in Colombia, where vast coca fields were sprayed aerially with the herbicide glyphosate". Aerial herbicides are certainly the most effective way to eradicate a crop, but, there are many critics who say that this tactic will put many farmers out of work and force them towards terrorist organizations. Ironically, it is those same poppy fields that fund most of those organizations that the U.S. is at war with; which is the lesser of two evils, strength in numbers or strength in funding? "Afghanistan is seen as a crucial area of cooperation for the United States and Russia, in large part because of Russia’s crippling heroin problem. The authorities here estimate that 30,000 young Russians die every year from drug use. Mr. Ivanov said that 90 percent of Russian addicts used Afghan heroin, which flows into the country freely over the "virtual borders” it shares with central Asian neighbors", reports the NYT. Ivanov's proposal is that the United States eradicate the poppy fields, then channel some of their anti-drug campaign money to plant wheat in the Afghan fields.

I find myself sympathetic towards Ivanov's cause and I believe that this is a global problem which needs a global answer. Afghanistan has very little control of their country as is evident by the Taliban stronghold; furthermore, they have no control over the production of Opium and many countries are suffering as a result. Afghanistan needed the worlds help to remove the insurgencies, it stands to reason they will need help eradicating this very serious heroin problem. It's a real "Catch 22"! We cannot ignore this anymore than Russia can and I believe cooperation is necessary if a solution is going to be found. Neither, Afghanistan, nor the United States agree with aerial eradication at this point in time; they believe the effects will cripple the country more than it will help. While Afghanistan worries about where it would be without Poppys, the world is trying to figure out how to keep heroin out of their own countries.