Although U.S. military troops have occupied Afghanistan for more than a decade, addictive drugs flow in ever-increasing quantities from that war-torn nation, ending up on the streets of major cities across the globe.
On Feb. 17, Iranian news agency Press TV reported: “Opium production by Afghan farmers rose between 2001 and 2011 from just 185 tons to a staggering 5,800 tons. Last year, levels increased by 61 percent, with more than 90 percent of heroin found on British streets being traced back to opiates cultivated in Afghanistan.”
Press TV also pointed out, “Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in 2001 that a significant reason for deployment of foreign forces to Afghanistan was to curtail a flourishing heroin trade.”
Author Gregg Kalina told AFP an intriguing story: “Last week I spoke with an Afghan man in Los Angeles. He said that even though the U.S. has been in his country for more than a decade to supposedly promote democracy, his cousin still lives there as a poppy farmer. The Afghani’s relative said that in 2000, $5 billion a year was generated from growing poppies. This year, that total will exceed $1 trillion.”
Kalina then dropped a bombshell: “This man’s cousin told him that the U.S. is giving poppy growers super seeds,” he said. “Anyone who looks at graphs of opium production can see how there are still record-breaking yields in Afghanistan. That doesn’t even include all the gold, copper and silver that we’re mining from that country.”
