Afghanistan is the world’s premier producer of opium, but that fact did not prevent the country from receiving a spot on a U.N. drug control board Wednesday.
Afghanistan received a four-year term to sit on the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an international group responsible for overseeing international drug control agreements. The board falls under the the U.N. Economic and Social Council, which voted to give Afghanistan the spot despite its known status as a major producer of opium.
The INCB itself warned of Afghanistan’s opium problem in its 2016 report. The report concluded the situation in Afghanistan “would seriously endanger the aims” of the 1961 narcotics convention, which aims to combat drug abuse.
Afghanistan’s opium production has surged more than 25-fold since 2001. Opium production saw a 43 percent increase in 2016 alone. Afghanistan alone supplied approximately 90 percent of the world’s heroin in 2015.
The poppy, from which opium is derived, has long been a cash crop in Afghanistan. The Taliban cracked down on poppy production in 2000, leading to a 96 percent reduction in poppy acreage. The U.S. backing of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance, the Taliban’s sworn enemy, during the invasion in 2001 allowed the crop to surge once again. The Northern Alliance was heavily involved in the opium trade, from production to trafficking.
Afghanistan’s opium boom is believed to be contributing to the ongoing U.S. heroine crisis. Opium is used in heroine production, and massive opium crops mean cheaper drugs. The opioid epidemic is considered the worst drug crisis in U.S. history, killing more than 27,000 people per year. Afghanistan has also suffered from cheaper drugs; users doubled from 1.6 million in 2012 to 3 million in 2015.
The Afghanistan war created an economic crisis in an already beleaguered country, and opium crops are often the most lucrative way out of poverty. A crop of opium can net an Afghan farmer four times as much money than any other crop. The U.S. has invested $7 billion to help combat opium production in Afghanistan, but cultivation continues to grow.
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