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25 June 2009 - Global Decrease in Opium Cultivation due to a Decrease in Afghanistan
The World Drug Report 2009, launched yesterday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Washington DC, shows that global markets for cocaine, opiates and cannabis are steady or in decline, while production and use of synthetic drugs appears to be increasing in the developing world.
The Report noted the decline of global opium poppy cultivation to 189,000 hectares in 2008, largely a result of a decrease in Afghanistan's cultivation area. On a further positive note, UNODC estimates that the number of Afghan involved in opium poppy cultivation decreased by 28% between 2007 and 2008. Unfortunately, these trends need to be set against the tremendous threat to Afghan stability and development that its drug trade continues to represent. Jean-Luc Lemahieu, UNODC's Representative for Afghanistan, noted that "many more reductions will be required to control the individual, social, economic and political damage of Afghanistan's opium economy". Opium production has exceeded demand in recent years, leading UNODC to assess that hundreds of tons have been stockpiled by farmers and traders in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries. Mr. Lemahieu observed that "stockpiles will allow ongoing, large-scale heroin production regardless of cultivation trends. This is bad news for Afghanistan and neighbouring countries since it is often forgotten than not only demand creates supply, but that also supply generates demand. Among other evils such as criminality and corruption, this stockpiling fuels the dangerous growth in drug demand in Afghanistan".
UNODC is conducting a drug abuse survey of Afghanistan in 2009 and it is expected to show a substantial expansion of demand. The increased availability of heroin has changed drug use patterns in Afghanistan and neighboring countries, from traditional opium smoking and oral consumption to drug injection. UNODC has observed that a significant number of Afghanistan's injecting drug users are returnees from neighboring countries; injection compounds the health risks of drug addiction by raising the threat of HIV transmission and a recent outbreak among Afghanistan's heroin addicts illustrates the dangers of this trend. More broadly, the cash and corruption generated by the drug trade undermines good governance, stokes public frustration with the Afghan state and provides a useful source of funding for the insurgency. "The drug trade in Afghanistan cuts across all other development and security issues. The trend is positive, but the window of opportunity limited. Progress must be consolidated fast and its process accelerated if we are to disengage the opium economy as a critical threat," urged Mr. Lemahieu.
12 April 2009 - Sub-regional HIV/AIDS Prevention Project
Last week the Afghan Minister of Public Health H.E. Mohammad Amin Fatehmi and the UNODC Representative Jean-Luc Lemahieu launched the sub-regional project for the provision of comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention and care services to Afghan refugee drug users in Iran and Pakistan and returnees in Afghanistan.
The increased availability of heroin has changed drug use patterns in Afghanistan and neighboring countries from traditional opium smoking and oral consumption to drug injection. This creates greater potential for HIV transmission through the sharing of injecting equipment. The high risk of an HIV outbreak among drug users in Afghanistan has been indicated recently at the former Russian Culture Center in Kabul, which has become the biggest provisional drug treatment facility in the country and is mainly inhabited by returnees from Pakistan and Iran.
The sub-regional initiative will establish a collaborative mechanism among the governments of the three countries and will involve close cooperation with the Ministries of Counter Narcotics and Refugees and Repatriation as well as UNHCR, IOM and UNAIDS. It will enable the provision of comprehensive HIV services for Afghan refugees, helping to reduce the individual and social harm of drug use from compounding the trials of migration.
1 April 2009 - Precursor Control and the Costs of Heroin Processing
Last week, the Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) seized 210 liters of acetic anhydride, a key chemical precursor in heroin manufacturing. The UNODC supported forensic laboratory of the CNPA has confirmed the confiscated chemicals as acetic anhydride. Based on initial investigation, it appears that it was diverted from a licit source in France, before being placed on board a flight from Delhi to Kabul. The Precursor Control Unit of the CNPA, recently created with the support of UNODC, is conducting the ongoing investigation into the final destination of the seizure.
The cost of acetic anhydride has risen in recent years and UNODC currently monitors a price that generally ranges between USD 300 - 400 per liter in Afghanistan. At this price, acetic anhydride accounts for a significant proportion of heroin processing costs.
UNODC estimates that approximately two thirds of Afghan's opium production is converted into heroin within the country. Seizures of acetic anhydride rose in 2008, but at 14,000 liters they remain a small proportion of the estimated volume that enters Afghanistan. Moreover, most seizures have been random, rather than led by intelligence.
Operation TARCET, facilitated by UNODC in 2008, led to the seizure of approximately 50 tons of precursor chemicals, mainly in Iran and Pakistan. UNODC is now facilitating preparations for Operation TARCET 2009, with an ambition for more effective cross-border cooperation and intelligence-led seizures, including to enable backtracking investigations.
30 March 2009 - Alternative Livelihoods for Afghan Farmers
At his first speech on the U.S. Strategy for Afghanistan last Friday, U.S. President Obama unveiled a new direction for counter narcotics efforts in Afghanistan.
This new approach has also been indicated recently by his Special Envoy, Richard Holbrooke, aiming at a "significant expansion of agricultural sector job creation programmes" in the fight against the Afghan drug trade.
UNODC predicts a decline in opium cultivation in 2009. However, this is to a great extent a response to market forces, namely over-production and a sliding price for opium, rather than a concerted turn by farmers to alternative livelihoods. Currently, 18 of 34 Afghan provinces are opium poppy free and another seven are within reach. In order to sustain these gains beyond the 2009 harvest, targeted support towards Afghan farmers, their families and communities is required.
In partnership with the Government of Afghanistan, UN agencies and other stakeholders, UNODC strongly supports a holistic approach of counter narcotics in Afghanistan, including agricultural development.
UNODC has assessed livelihood strategies in several Afghan provinces and identified the immediate needs of farmers formerly engaged in or at risk of re-engaging in opium cultivation. Examples have included Badakshan and Balkh. As a result of those assessments, these and other provinces received funding for short-term and high impact assistance. In particular, labour-intensive activities were designed to provide paid employment opportunities to households before comprehensive alternative livelihood programmes come into force.
13 March 2009 - Emergency Situation of Drug Users at the former Russian Culture Centre
Afghanistan is the world's opium capital and we estimate that in recent years it has produced more opium than is consumed worldwide. Hundreds of tons have been stockpiled by traders and farmers in the country, which raises the risk of an increased availability of cheap opium and heroin on domestic markets.
There is already a worrying prevalence of heroin and opium abuse in Afghanistan; we estimate there are 25,000 - 30,000 opium addicts and 15,000 - 20,000 heroin addicts in Kabul alone. The former Russian Cultural Centre (RCC) in Kabul is home to a population of at least 600 of these drug addicts, with a further 600 - 800 drug users visiting during the day. Living conditions at the heavily damaged centre are extremely unhygienic and until recently 2 - 4 people died there on a daily basis, mostly from exposure, malnutrition and medical problems related to living conditions.
The majority of drug users are returning refugees and deportees from camps in neighboring countries, and their families are typically still in the refugee camps or in provinces outside Kabul. Many of the residents are injecting drug users and there is concern about the spread of HIV and other blood-borne diseases through the RCC's population and to Afghans beyond.
Together with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and the Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN), the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and UNODC have initiated a joint UN response to tackle the emergency situation in the RCC, with distribution of food, syringes, provision of health services, detoxification and reintegration assistance. For the 600 RCC residents the joint response has been a success. Unfortunately, it is only a miniature intervention that urgently needs upscaling, meanwhile introducing new and human concepts towards drug addiction and HIV/AIDS.
12 March 2009 - Blue Heart Campaign Against Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a crime that strips people of their rights, ruins their dreams and robs them of their dignity. Millions of victims are entrapped and exploited every year in this modern form of slavery. It is a global problem and no country is immune. To rally world public opinion against human trafficking, on 5 March UNODC launched the Blue Heart Campaign at the Women's World Awards in Vienna.
UNODC's Country Office for Afghanistan supports the Blue Heart Campaign to raise awareness in Afghanistan and the region. The people of Afghanistan are extremely vulnerable to this crime, arising from poverty and conflict. Afghan women, children and men are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, marriage, enslavement for begging, recruitment into militant groups and abduction for extremist religious indoctrination.
Destinations are both internal and external. Afghan women and girls in particular are forced into servitude in Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf. In turn, Afghanistan receives victims from Iran, Tajikistan and China. The implications are wide ranged, up to cases in which coercion and deception apparently played a role in preparing suicide bombers brought from Pakistan.
8 March 2009 - First Methamphetamine Seizure in Afghanistan
For the first time, UNODC and the Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) have confirmed a seizure of methamphetamine in Afghanistan.
The seizure of four 1 g bags of high-purity methamphetamine took place on 31 January 2009 in Helmand province. In the past, reports of methamphetamine seizures in the field and in the border areas of neighboring countries have proven to be false, either inaccurately reported in press articles or inaccurately labeled at the time of seizure. In this case, officers initially believed the drugs to be heroin. Following examination at the CNPA laboratory supported by UNODC, however, CNPA technicians produced a clear confirmation of methamphetamine.
Four grams is a small amount of methamphetamine, yielding around 150 doses if smoked or injected. Nevertheless, with this first seizure Afghanistan has crossed a worrying threshold. The manifold challenges of the opium economy have placed a heavy burden on Afghanistan and the rise of methamphetamine consumption/production would be an unwelcome addition.
The history of the Golden Triangle demonstrates that methamphetamine production can have significant impacts on an opium economy, rapidly transforming a plant-based narcotics challenge into a challenge of tracking large synthetic laboratories. Many countries around the world have reacted too late to the development of methamphetamine markets and now face the increased costs of curing rather than preventing the negative health and social consequences.
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