Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Financial Hub to Growing Insurgency!

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Financial Hub to Growing Insurgency!

Sky-scraping illiteracy, bad governance, shooting corruption, escalating human rights violation and growing insurgency are not the only reason earning universal fame for this landscape, mass production of opium is another distinction, and it is widely known for. Financially speaking opium production might bring handsome revenue for the poverty stricken country, nevertheless its magnitude of losses supersede its gains pushing large number of young blood to irreversible death valley.

The prevalent social evil, the drug production and addiction is a black scare on the face of humanity that claims to be civilized. You must not be aware of the fact that it is killing thousands of people across the world each year. Well yes it is right that it does not kill all its patients but those who survive with it are living a life worst than hell. The worst part is that it is most popularly seen in the younger generations who can not cope up with the pressures and social demands. It is sad to know that the upcoming generation is getting involved in such life taking social evils. Well not only talking of the teens, this drug addiction culture and easier accessibility has left no particular level of the society or a people of particular age group.

Earning a distinction in opium production, how can Afghans are spared of wreckages, the drug produce? Afghanistan is confronted by one of the highest levels of addiction in the world. According to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data, nearly one million Afghans, between 15-64 years of age, are affected by drug use in the South Asian nation. The opium produced is smuggled across the globe in particular neighboring countries. Consequently large number of new drug addicts is added to existing one, each year.

This life claiming drug is widespread across the country and easily accessible whilst government turning a blind eye and deaf ear to its illegal sell. Many Afghans are taking drugs as a kind of self-medication against the hardships of life. Addictive drugs are not only sold through the drug dealers but they are very easily available at any pharmacy. It is very hard for a person to come out if this habit, but they are really willing to do that then there are ways where normal life routine can be restored.

Opium at large is cursed seeing the human calamity inflicted due its blatant use. Admittedly asserting, opium is not liable but the government who’s either supervision or negligence to regulate its trade and dealing, of-course is. Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy. Opium contains approximately 12% morphine, frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade and for legal medicinal use in some countries. It is illegal use is often converted into heroin, which is less bulky, making it easier to smuggle, and which multiplies its potency to approximately twice that of morphine. Heroin can be taken orally, by intravenous injection, intra-nasally, or smoked and inhaled. When used in medicine, it is typically used to treat severe pain, such as that resulting from a heart attack or a severe injury. The name “heroin” is usually only used when being discussed in its illegal form.

Afghanistan is already the world’s largest producer of opium, and last year accounted for 75 percent of the world’s heroin supply. The United Nations’ top counternarcotics official assumes it will reach to 90 percent in the subsequent year. For the first time over 200,000 hectares of Afghan fields were growing poppies, according to the UN’s Afghanistan Opium Survey for 2013, covering an area equivalent to the island nation of Mauritius. The 2013 figure represents the highest total cultivation ever for Afghanistan, surpassing the previous peak of 193,000 hectares in 2007. Total opium production reached roughly 5,500 tons, an increase of 49 percent since 2012. Opium prices fell slightly, but according to the report, the farm-gate value–the price of a crop when the farmer sells it–increased by almost a third. Nearly $1 billion of raw opium came out of Afghanistan last year, accounting for 4% of the country’s GDP.

It is found, the opium trade has become the key economic activity in the village. Now, all the irrigated land is given over to the poppy cultivation, and most of the men and women who worked in the livestock trade are involved in the opium trade. Consequently, some province owing the status of poppy free province like Balkh, Faryab and Takhar in the north and west, are in danger of losing their status, according to United Nations report. They are among 16 provinces that had been declared poppy-free; such provinces receive $1 million awards from the American Embassy.

The illegal drug production has set close ties with insurgency and terrorism. It is widely accepted that illicit drug production and trade serve the greatest funding source for insurgent’s activities. The increasing might insurgents acquire will be a dominant threat to security institutions, unleashing the terror plots. Afghanistan’s security condition deteriorated to greater extend is clear intimation to the underlying fact. There are credible reports suggesting that Taliban insurgents took advantage of insecurity in several provinces to assist opium farmers and win popular support -protecting an important form of income for their operations. Opium cultivation has increased the most wherever there has been insecurity.

It can confidently be claimed that if illegal opium production discouraged and instead legalized, it not only brings economic gains but also curtails terrorism and insurgency. Let’s wait and see, whether the government takes satisfactory measures, ruining the financial hub to growing insurgency.

Asmatyari is permanent writer of Daily outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at asmatyari@gmail.com

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