In an attempt to finance its insurgency operations through forced opium cultivation, Afghanistan is contributing to a surge in heroin supplies to India, says a senior official of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
“We notice that much of the increased supplies of heroin and other illicit drugs from Afghanistan are also now landing up in India via Pakistan,” said Dr Thomas Pietschmann.
He told Deccan Herald that there is a 30 per cent increase in the heroin supplies from Afghanistan to India.
“Around 92 per cent of the world’s heroin comes from poppies grown in Afghanistan, and much of the expansion of the heroin cultivation is due to conflict-ridden provinces of southern Afghanistan. Besides, Taliban which had discouraged poppy cultivation during 1996-97, is now encouraging farmers to cultivate more opium to fund its insurgency war,” official said.
Just at a time when the problem of narcotics and illicit drugs is brought under control, Afghanistan is fast becoming the epicentre for global poppy production. “Opium production in Afghanistan remains a major problem,” he said, suggesting that there was a sharp rise in the cultivation during the last year offsetting the remarkable success in elimination of other sources of opium supply.
Releasing the “2007 World Drug Report,” Dr Pietschmann said, “the drug situation has stabilised” but governments cannot sit pretty as new areas like Afghanistan are emerging to finance the insurgency wars.
Governments need to change their policies and treat the drug problem on the same pedestal as any other public health problem, he said.