Frightening, indeed, will appear to be the prospects of Afghanistan turning into a narcotic state, as hinted by President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Tuesday.
A shocking revelation he is reported to have made in his address to a counter-narcotics conference, that although drugs pose a far greater threat to his country than terrorism, the international community is not doing enough to tackle the scourge.
Making no secret of the fact that Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, the raw material for heroin, he also give vent to fears of its rise to record production this year as drug barons and Taliban insurgents continue to cash in on the harvest. More disturbing, in this regard, will appear to be his evident conclusion that poppy, its cultivation and drugs have overtaken terrorism as Afghanistan's major enemy.
Needless to point out, Karzai's fears can hardly be viewed as being based on mere assumptions or exaggerations in any way. For, as it happens to be, narcotics trade is believed to account for about a third of his country's economy - and about 87 percent of the world's illegal heroin, making the United Nations fear that it could become a narco-state.
Again, while acknowledging aid for a fight against drugs, Karzai had good reason to complain the world was not doing enough, as effects remain far from being really visible. He said the international assistance "has been scanty and minor" ...So far and we ask the world to help us in this regard substantially." Nevertheless, he averred that Afghans has to fight narcotics even if the world did not help as it threatened the country's stability and future.
According to Karzai, drug barons and mafia outside Afghanistan benefit the most from drugs and that farmers would abandon the crop only if they got alternative ways to earn a living. But this will sound like a tall order. The Taliban, had succeeded in stamping out poppy cultivation during the last year of their rule, but despite tens of millions of dollars in anti-narcotics aid, opium growing has regained momentum in the wake of their ouster.
And, now that they have made a league with the drug gangs, vowing to help impoverished farmers protect their crops and reap a share of the profits, they are stated to be fighting to keep foreign forces and government authorities out of opium-growing regions.
It will be noted that Afghanistan's opium output last year was about 4,100 tonnes, a slight drop over the previous year. However, international experts have seen production blooming this year, rising too much larger than in 2005. From all indications, the Kabul government is unlikely to arrest the increase in the poppy harvest, except through a massive enabling effort, thereby underlining President Karzai's quest for much more contribution for the anti-narcotic operations from the world community.
All this put together should convincingly explain an unprecedented boost to drug trafficking from increasing involvement and patronage of drugs and arms mafias because of evident nexus between the two. What is happening in Afghanistan should necessarily be worrisome for Pakistan too. For it was in 1987 when drug abuse and trafficking started gaining momentum that the international convention against it provided an impetus to the UN Drug Control Programme.
This has reference to the increasingly supportive role of the International Narcotics Control Board. Nevertheless Pakistan has all the reason to feel concerned about abuse and trafficking of drugs. Of course, other countries have also continued to suffer on these counts.
But Pakistan is, evidently, one country that has taken the brunt of its entire menacing burden. Reasons for it should not be too far to seek either, as there has been virtually no let-up in drug abuse and narcotic trafficking via Pakistan, notwithstanding the cut in local poppy cultivation and dislocation in movement of goods caused by the ongoing war on terrorism.
Despite near elimination of poppy cultivation in Pakistan itself there has been a spurt in smuggling of heroin, together with increasing use of opiates, thereby raising the addiction rate to highest in the world. Moreover, with this country being increasingly used for drug trafficking, it stands little chance of reversing the horrific trend. This should serve as a sort of indication of the changing trends in the proliferation of drugs. The need for identification of unfailing ways to thwart its menacing spread becomes more urgent.