Britain’s war against opium production in Afghanistan is being lost
According to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, with outputs of the class-A drug soaring to record levels in the past decade despite western intervention.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon told delegates at a conference in Vienna that “time is not on our side” as he conceded that the war against Afghan heroin production was failing. He claimed that Afghanistan's economy would never be stable unless the government tackled the issue.
"Drug trafficking and transnational organised crime undermine the health of fragile states, (and) weaken the rule of law," he told delegates. "Above all, the Afghan government must prioritise the issue of narcotics."
In 2001, Tony Blair said a significant reason for the West's invasion of Afghanistan was to curtail a flourishing heroin trade, yet opium production between 2001 and 2011 increased from 185 tonnes to 5,800 tonnes, according to UN figures.
Speaking just a few weeks after the terror attack on the Twin Towers, Tony Blair said: “The arms the Taliban are buying today are paid for by the lives of young British people buying their drugs on British streets. This is another part of their regime we should seek to destroy.”
Despite the pledge by the former prime minister, last year levels increased by 61 per cent with more than 90 per cent of heroin found on British streets being traced back to opiates farmed in Afghanistan. The export of opium is now thought to make up 15 per cent of Afghanistan’s Gross National Product, with the trade having a net worth of up to £1.6 billion.
Since the conflict started in Afghanistan, the UK has pumped £18 billion into the country, losing 398 soldiers. A further £4 billion has been earmarked for this year.The Taliban is thought to be behind a vast majority of the drugs trades, using funds from the sales to purchase artillery.
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