Imagine a landlocked country with little air or land access to the outside world and surrounded by hostile neighbors becoming the largest not only of producer of opium in the world but its exporter too. It is unimaginable, isn't it?

Analysts have always looked at opium growing as a local phenomenon and therefore a local problem in Afghanistan, often ignoring the driving force behind opium farming in the country.

Demand and supply is a fundamental principle of modern economics. According to this principle, the demand drives the supply. In simple terms, when there is demand for a product there is supply of it and when there is no demand for a product there is no supply of it.

The demands for opium grown in Afghanistan are huge at the regional and international levels. One is of course the consumption demand that is very high in the rich countries. In some European countries, in particular, the use of drugs is not even illegal. There are rich countries where drugs are used freely in pubs and other designated places.

However, there is another level of demand that is most important and often ignored; the trading demands in the region and at the international levels. The regional trading demand is particularly very high.

There are organized drug traffickers all around Afghanistan through which the drug is smuggled and exported and traded overseas. And there are multiple layers of drug trafficking business in the region. There are small traffickers and there are bigger ones who are so powerful with close links with the politicians and the other authorities in the region whose arrests and persecution is particularly impossible.

Little has been done to stop the powerful drug traffickers who have the means to process the drug and export it to the rich countries. The blame has always been laid on the Afghan government and its people who have been going through painful agony in the hands of invaders and terrorists in the past three decades.

Due to insecurity and presence of terrorists in Afghanistan and its borders, the government and people of Afghanistan has little means at their disposals to stop the opium farming. Many farmers are forced to grow opium out of poverty.

And in the insecure areas and in the areas bordering Iran and Pakistan, there are powerful drug lords who control and own largeland areas that they use to grow opium. These drug lords are with regional and international connections and are out of reach of the government and people of Afghanistan.

The regional drug traffickers are well established and powerful with mini armies and connections with the neighboring countries politicians and law enforcement agencies. Stopping them requires international actions. Without strong actions by the powerful countries, it is impossible to eliminate the deep and strong demand for opium grown in Afghanistan. It is this demand that has to be stopped, that will automatically stop opium farming in Afghanistan.

Another actor in the drug trade and trafficking is the international terrorists and the insurgents. It is well known facts that the terrorists and the insurgents finance their activities by the money derived from the drug trade.
Therefore, the eradication program which is based on the misdiagnosis of the problem is a wrong strategy and bound to failures as has been seen in the past years. Also, blaming governance and government failure to stop opium planting is scapegoating Afghanistan and its people.

There has to be a multi-pronged approach to elimination of opium farming in Afghanistan and its trading through the regional and international players.

One, it is has to focus on getting rid of the consumption demand in the rich countries through illegalizing drug use by individuals and groups. There should also be harsh punishment for sales and purchase of drugs that is now freely happening in some rich countries.

Two, the regional countries, Afghanistan neighbors,have to come up with a strategy to curb drug smuggling from Afghanistan and exporting to other countries through their ports and airports. The international organizationworking in the field should pressure these countries to close the drug gateways that go through these countries.

Three, the international community and the neighboring countries have to fight the terrorists and the insurgents very hard so that they are unable to find sanctuary inside and outside Afghanistan that enables them to force farmers to grow opium and engage in drug trafficking that sustain their and finance their drug trafficking activities.

Four, and of course the government and people of Afghanistan should take part in any regional and international efforts to stop opium planting and forming in the country and deny the terrorists, insurgents and the drug lords the assets that they use to further destabilize the country and further push the country into disarray and chaos.
Stop the demand, the end of supply will come naturally.