Afghan drug problem must be tackled globally
Moscow urged the global community to set up an antidrug coalition, to fight the Afghan drug production and drug trafficking. The proposal was made during Moscow-Washington video conference “What to do with opium fields in Afghanistan?” held Thursday.
Today Afghanistan is undisputable world leader in heroin production. In 2009, this Central Asian country produced hard drugs twice as much as the whole world produced 10 years ago. The Afghan heroin storm attacked the EU, which is on the first place in the world in opium consumption. Opium is also pain for Russia especially for its southern territories. The incomes from heroin trafficking via Russia to Europe are estimated at more than $17 billion a year. It is well known fact that except for small change which goes to Afghan peasant the billions are flowing to the accounts of transnational criminal and terrorist organizations. Almost every tenth Afghan citizen is involved in opium poppy production.
In his statement Yury Krupnov, chairman of the supervisory council of the Institute of demography, migration and regional development, named the Afghan drug production a planetary problem:
“We are facing a planetary phenomenon with 95% world drug production focused in Afghanistan where only Helmand province accounts for 65%. We are on no account have the right to shift all responsibility on the Afghan government. It is necessary to liquidate plantations of opium poppy even despite the contradictions between Russia and the US. If we don’t do it we will put the solution of the Afghan problem on a back burner for good.”
In his turn political adviser of the Afghan embassy in the IS Ashraf Khaidari said that it is necessary to tackle the problem of drug production at the international level. He also said that one of the priority tasks of the coalition forces in Afghanistan is to fight organized crime.
One more measure to fight the Afghan heroin expansion is to fight the drug lords. It is a common fact that the owners of opium poppy plantations in Afghanistan live in other countries. It is necessary to disclose them to put on the international wanted list, Krupnov says.
Annually the Afghan drugs kill about 100,000 people, which is more than the number of people the nuclear bomb killed in Hiroshima. In order to work out joint approach to the Afghan problem Moscow will hold an international forum, “Afghan Drug Production is a Challenge to the International Community” on the 9th of June. The forum will gather representatives of the UN, NATO, SCO and other international organizations.