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 BrewersFan
Horse Tooth Jackass
Registered: 05/23/09
Posts: 35
Last seen: 3 years, 9 months
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 US announces shift in Afghanistan drug policy 
#10580802 - 06/27/09 10:37 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer Nicole Winfield, Associated Press Writer
TRIESTE, Italy – The United States has announced a new drug policy for opium-rich Afghanistan, saying it was phasing out funding for eradication programs while significantly increasing its funding for alternate crop and drug interdiction efforts.
The U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, told The Associated Press on Saturday that eradication programs weren't working and were only driving farmers into the hands of the Taliban.
"Eradication is a waste of money," Holbrooke said on the sidelines of a Group of Eight foreign ministers' meeting on Afghanistan, during which he briefed regional representatives on the new policy.
The G-8 ministers "strongly appreciated" the shift, which also includes an increase in annual U.S. funding for agricultural development from a few million dollars to a few hundred million dollars, said Foreign Minister Franco Frattini of Italy, the current G-8 president.
Officials at Afghanistan's Interior Ministry and Counternarcotics Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Afghanistan is the world's leading source of opium, cultivating 93 percent of the world's heroin-producing crop. The United Nations has estimated the Taliban and other Afghan militants made $50 million to $70 million of last year's opium and heroin trade.
The U.N. drug office said in a report this week that opium cultivation dropped 19 percent last year, but was still concentrated in southern provinces where the Taliban insurgency is strongest.
The head of the U.N. drug office, Antonio Maria Costa, told the G-8 meeting that the dip in cultivation was welcome "though vulnerable to relapse" without concerted international efforts to assist farmers abandon poppy cultivation to harvest other crops. In addition, law enforcement operations must be increased to disrupt drug markets, production labs and convoys, he said.
Holbrooke said the U.S. planned to do just that with its new policy shift.
"We're essentially phasing out our support for crop eradication and using the money to work on interdiction, rule of law, alternate crops," he told the AP. At the same time, Washington is upgrading its support for agriculture programs.
"That's the big change in our policies," he said. "This was widely accepted as the right thing to do."
Costa said the United Nations had determined that eradication programs were inefficient since too few hectares (acres) were being cleared at too high a cost.
The U.S. strategy of phasing out eradication in favor of agricultural development and drug interdiction "seems to be the winning strategy, and I'm glad that all of this has received support from the G-8 ministers," Costa told the AP.
Holbrooke said the previous U.S. policy to combat Afghan poppy, which focused on eradication programs, hadn't reduced "by one dollar" the amount of money the Taliban earned off cultivation and production.
"It might destroy some acreage," Holbrooke said. "But it just helped the Taliban."
Agriculture was among the issues taken up at the G-8 meeting on Saturday, with participants saying in their final statement that agricultural development was "key to the future of Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as other countries in the region."
"Moreover, food insecurity and chronic poverty are root causes of civil instability and forced migration," it said in calling for expanded international cooperation in agriculture to boost employment and incomes and provide farmers with alternatives to poppy production.
Holbrooke said the international community wasn't trying to target Afghan farmers in its policies, just the Taliban militants who buy their crops.
"The farmers are not our enemy, they're just growing a crop to make a living," he said. "It's the drug system. So the U.S. policy was driving people into the hands of the Taliban."
Costa urged the international community to put the same amount of economic emphasis on boosting the agricultural sector that it puts on combatting the Taliban insurgency militarily.
"If this can be done, I believe that — and I'm optimistic — that the Afghan opium situation will improve dramatically," he said.
The shift in U.S. policy follows a steady decrease in the number of hectares (acres) destroyed by eradication programs.
According to the U.N. report, opium poppy eradication reached a high in 2003, after the Taliban were ousted from power, with over 21,000 hectares (51,900 acres) eradicated. In 2008, only 5,480 hectares (13,500 acres) were cut down compared with 19,047 hectares (47,000 acres) in 2007.
Costa said Afghan opium would kill 100,000 people this year in the parts of world where demand for heroin is highest: Europe, Russia and West Asia.
To fight it, he said major powers had to expand their counter-drug efforts to neighboring Pakistan as well as Iran, where half the 7,000 tons of exported Afghan opium transits, "causing the highest addiction rate in the world."
"Facing a grave health epidemic, Iran should be given the chance to engage in common efforts to combat illicit trafficking," he said.
Iran had been invited to attend the G-8 meeting on Afghanistan, because anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan have been identified as a key area where the United States and Iran can work together — part of President Barack Obama's outreach effort.
But Italy withdrew the invitation after Iran failed to respond and after its bloody postelection crackdown on protesters, which has sparked international condemnation.
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WWDD?
What Would Danzig Do?
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clorox
Crossing theDoors ofPerception
Registered: 05/06/07
Posts: 816
Loc: The Other Side
Last seen: 10 hours, 25 minutes
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Re: US announces shift in Afghanistan drug policy [Re: BrewersFan]
#10580882 - 06/27/09 11:00 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
"Eradication is a waste of money,"
aint that the fuckin' truth.
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These walls, such they be, are crawling with geometric hallucinations.
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Visionary Tools
I <3 Thomas Jefferson
 
Registered: 06/23/07
Posts: 6,743
Last seen: 2 days, 11 hours
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Re: US announces shift in Afghanistan drug policy [Re: clorox]
#10581022 - 06/27/09 11:50 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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I'm just waiting for an "Iran, Contra, CIA & Afghanistan" banquet/drug selling hybrid theatrical event.
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Wiccan_Seeker said:
slide down a pole than with your legs spread and using your pussy as a brake. Ask the fire department 
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 Enpo
OneGodOneTree
Registered: 07/25/08
Posts: 2,518
Loc: 
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Re: US announces shift in Afghanistan drug policy [Re: Visionary Tools]
#10581368 - 06/27/09 02:13 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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The alternate crop is going to be marijuana. Thats why all of these states are going green?
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ME OWl AND MY EYES GO GREEN
Dark as night I can't be seen!
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AsAboveSoBelow
The matrix has you
Registered: 02/06/08
Posts: 2,515
Last seen: 1 year, 7 months
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Re: US announces shift in Afghanistan drug policy [Re: Enpo]
#10581909 - 06/27/09 04:58 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Wow, 93% for heroin production? didn't know it was that much
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You're gonna get hurt real bad 
They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind
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azshroomer
no1
Registered: 01/07/09
Posts: 282
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Re: US announces shift in Afghanistan drug policy [Re: AsAboveSoBelow]
#10582244 - 06/27/09 06:42 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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"The farmers are not our enemy, they're just growing a crop to make a living," he said. "It's the drug system. So the U.S. policy was driving people into the hands of the Taliban."
Um yeah, so why the FUCK aren't they applying this to our homeland?
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ToiletDuk
Give me Librium or give me Meth!
Registered: 05/17/03
Posts: 81,283
Loc: Earthfarm 1
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Re: US announces shift in Afghanistan drug policy [Re: BrewersFan]
#10582249 - 06/27/09 06:44 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
BrewersFan said:
The U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, told The Associated Press on Saturday that eradication programs weren't working and were only driving farmers into the hands of the Taliban.
No shit, sherlock.
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Denisius
Comrade
Registered: 05/15/09
Posts: 139
Last seen: 5 days, 16 hours
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Re: US announces shift in Afghanistan drug policy [Re: ToiletDuk]
#10584867 - 06/28/09 05:17 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Well, at least it's a step in the right direction.
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veggie
Registered: 07/26/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc:
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Re: US announces shift in Afghanistan drug policy [Re: BrewersFan]
#10592748 - 06/29/09 04:27 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Britain to rip out poppies
June 30, 2009 - smh.com.au
BRITAIN will fund the destruction of opium fields in Afghanistan, despite the US condemning it as a waste of money.
The British Government said destroying poppy fields was one of the pillars of its anti-opium strategy in the southern province of Helmand.
The statement was made a day after Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said that destroying the crop drove poor farmers to join the Taliban insurgency.
He said the US would stop funding poppy eradication and concentrate on encouraging farmers to grow alternative crops. Afghanistan supplies more than 90 per cent of the world's heroin, and 60 per cent of its crop is grown in Helmand.
The British Government is spending £290 million ($596 million) on a three-year program of eradication, support for farmers, and the pursuit of drug traffickers.
British officials denied there was a clash with the US over the policy change, and said the final details of the plans had not been decided.
The Afghan Government backed Britain's stance and defended its previous efforts, which relied on ripping up or flattening poppies, as "perfect".
Afghanistan's Counter Narcotics Minister, Khodaidad, who, like many Afghans, goes by one name, said Afghanistan had achieved "a lot of success" with its anti-drug strategy - which relies on the manual eradication of poppy fields, monetary incentives and public relations campaigns.
Afghan counter narcotics police have for years used tractors or hand tools to plough or chop down poppies - which yield opium, the ingredient in heroin - but dozens have been killed.
Because the country plants so many poppies, the Taliban and other militants are believed to have reaped tens of millions of dollars in yearly profits.
Eradication "might destroy some acreage, but it didn't reduce the amount of money the Taliban got by one dollar", Mr Holbrooke said on Saturday in Rome, on the sidelines of a Group of Eight foreign ministers meeting.
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