Narcotics cultivation a serious threat to Afghanistan: UN

The United Nations is said to consider the cultivation and production of narcotics a serious threat for Afghanistan.

The United Nations counter-narcotics regional chief emphasized that they will continue cooperation with Afghanistan to eradicate the phenomenon.

Based on the survey conducted recently, the number of addicts to narcotic in Afghanistan has been reached from 1.3 million to 1.4 million.

The fresh figures of Narco-addicts to Afghanistan have been released by counter-narcotics ministry and the administration for counter crime and narcotics of Afghanistan as well as the UN administration for Counter Crime and narcotics.

The Afghan authorities are laying emphasize that despite thousands hectares of poppy fields and hundreds drug production factories are eradicated within recent 13 years by counternarcotic missions in Afghanistan and this campaign is continuing so far.

Nor apparently are the Taliban the only insurgency funded by Afghan drugs. On Nov.26 in remarks widely quoted in the Russian media, Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) head Viktor Ivanov said that the “large-scale transit of Afghan heroin acts as a renewable financial base for the functioning of the Islamic State (IS) group, which obtains fabulous profits by providing half of the total heroin supply to Europe via destabilized Iraq and some African countries.

It is clear that without the elimination of large-scale drug production in Afghanistan, there is no point in talking about resolving conflicts in these countries.” Ivanov bluntly stated, “Afghanistan is rapidly turning into a narco-state.” Ivanov’s remarks echoed earlier statements by Spanish intelligence, which in Oct. said that IS European and other extremist groups were using ties to the illegal drug trade to finance operations in Iraq and Syria.

Afghanistan has the potential to exploit agriculture, but lack of development in this sector has held back this source of livelihood.

Lack of modernization, facilities and experience has meant that agriculture has not seen much progress even though Afghanistan is traditionally an agricultural country. Afghanistan’s lack of access to markets and the import of cheap agricultural products from neighboring countries have also prevented the development of agriculture.

Another main reason for problems in implementation of Afghan government’s counter narcotics strategy is the absence of rule of law and a weak justice system.

The Afghan government has not been able to control narcotics production because of lack of strong governance and administrative corruption.

Mapping out the 100 hundred day plan, the minister of counter narcotics said the anti-drug law should be adjust and fight against this phenomenon should be more serious.

With presence of international forces in Afghanistan within recent 13 years, the production of narcotics has been reached into its high peak and now, the regional countries such as Russia and China should help Afghanistan government for eradication of this sinister phenomenon.

Reported by Fawad Naseri