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SECURITY
Legalizing Opium Production in Afghanistan? Not the Answer
- Summary
- Overview
- Conclusions
- Canada is Taking Comprehensive Action
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The Government of Afghanistan has repeatedly and publicly stated that licit production of opium is not a viable option in Afghanistan.
- The Government of Afghanistan’s opposition to legalising opium production is strongly supported by Canada and the rest of the international community.
- The implementation of a legalization scheme in Afghanistan would simply attract more farmers to cultivate poppy. Licit cultivation would likely only add to illicit cultivation, not replace it.
- Afghanistan currently lacks the administrative capacity to manage the necessary control mechanisms for such a program. Legalization of opium would actually strengthen the illicit drug trade and undermine current efforts to foster security and sustainable economic development in Afghanistan.
- Canada recognizes the importance of a concerted effective counter-narcotics strategy as part of our multi-faceted effort in Afghanistan. There are no simple solutions to a problem that has taken decades to develop.
- Canada is taking comprehensive action and has already allocated $27 million to support the development of legal livelihoods in order to provide Afghans alternatives to poppy cultivation.
- Earlier this year, the Government also announced that Canada will be investing an additional $30 million towards counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan. This new investment will provide further direct support for the Afghan National Drug Control Strategy through sustainable programs that will help the Afghans build their institutional capacity to counter the narcotics trade.
The Afghanistan drug trade is a significant challenge to the efforts of Canada, the Government of Afghanistan and the international community to build security in Afghanistan. The drug trade has expanded significantly over decades of conflict and remains a serious threat to the future of Afghanistan. Heroin from Afghanistan is also increasingly ending up on Canadian streets.
Canada has been working with our international partners in order to reduce and eventually eliminate the production and trafficking of illicit narcotics. We know that without comprehensive efforts to combat the Afghan drug trade:
- the links between drug traffickers and the insurgency will deepen;
- corruption will worsen with drug traffickers operating with impunity and undermining the elected Government of Afghanistan; and
- more Afghan farmers will be forced into poppy cultivation by traffickers, the insurgency, and lack of access to alternatives.
Making progress on Afghan drugs is a challenging task. Like most difficult challenges, the Afghan drug trade does not have an easy or quick answer. It will take time and the commitment of the Government of Afghanistan as well as the international community to make progress.
Acknowledging the challenges, the Government of Afghanistan with the full support of the international community has developed a plan, the Afghan National Drug Control Strategy. Canada strongly supports this multi-faceted plan. The Strategy was formally endorsed by the international community at the London Conference of January 2006.
The Afghan National Drug Control Strategy has four key priorities:
- disrupting the drug trade by targeting traffickers and their backers;
- strengthening and diversifying legal rural livelihoods;
- reducing the demand for illicit drugs and treating drug users; and
- further developing state institutions at the central and provincial level vital to the delivery of the CN strategy.
The Strategy also includes: a public awareness campaign, improving international and regional cooperation; establishing an effective criminal justice system that can support drug law enforcement; and building the capacity to conduct targeted and verified ground-based eradication.
It is important to note that the Government of Afghanistan’s Strategy is not eradication-led, but does recognize that “where there are legal livelihoods, a credible threat of eradication is needed in order to incentivise the shift away from poppy cultivation”. The Afghan Government has also decided that eradication should be delivered by manual or mechanical ground-based means. Chemical spraying (the use of herbicides) as an eradication method is currently not being used in Afghanistan.
It has been the consistent and strongly held position of the Government of Afghanistan that the National Drug Control Strategy is the long-term comprehensive approach that it fully supports in dealing with the drug trade. The Government of Afghanistan has repeatedly and publicly stated that licit production of opium is not a viable option in Afghanistan.
There are several reasons why the Government of Afghanistan’s opposition to legalizing opium production is strongly supported by Canada and the rest of the international community.
Current Afghan Administrative Capacity
Opium has been cultivated in a number of countries in order to ensure that there is a sufficient supply of opiates for legitimate medical requirements. Although any country can cultivate, produce and trade in licit opium, they must do so in accordance with the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961 and under the supervision and guidance of the International Narcotics Control Board.
The Government of Afghanistan does not currently have the capacity to administer a licit cultivation scheme. Countries that produce opium for licit use maintain strict control regimes and are monitored by the UN. Countries like Australia, France, Spain, India and Turkey who produce licit opium have effective systems supported by developed governmental structures. Yet, even in countries with well-established infrastructures and economies far larger and more sophisticated than that of Afghanistan, there are still instances of illegal diversion of raw opium to illegal buyers.
It is therefore safe to assume that if countries with high-levels of administrative capacity are experiencing this problem, Afghanistan, in its current state, would be unable to sustain an effectively controlled licit opium market. Without the proper control mechanisms, there would be an extremely high risk that Afghan opium destined for licit markets would be diverted to illicit trade.
Despite the fact that opium in Afghanistan reached record cultivation levels last year, opium poppy is currently grown on less than 4% of agricultural land. This leaves enormous scope for expansion of poppy cultivation, and, with the implementation of a legalization scheme in the country, would only attract more farmers to cultivate poppy. Licit cultivation would likely only add to illicit cultivation, not replace it.
International Demand for OpiatesInternational Demand for Opiates
According to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the United Nations narcotics monitoring agency, an over-production of licit opiates since 2000 has led to stockpiles in producing countries that could cover demand for two years. Afghan opium would only serve to saturate an oversupplied market.
Concerns about an insufficient supply of opiates in some parts of the world, particularly in developing countries, are not directly related to the global supply of licit opiates. Legalizing Afghan opium production would not ensure that drugs will reach the people who need them, any more than does the current system of supply.
Licit producers like India and Turkey have well-developed government control systems and benefit from preferential trade agreements which make licit opiate production economically viable. Other countries that produce opiates (France, Spain and Australia) have significant advantages in the licit industry because of their use of advanced technology, improved seed, and well-resourced agricultural industries.
The production cost for the equivalent of 1 kilogram of morphine in 1999 was US$56 in Australia, US$160 in India and US$250 in Turkey. The current cost in Afghanistan is approximately US$450. It is not realistic to assume that Afghanistan would be able to compete on the international market given the state of its agricultural infrastructure.
There is also little incentive for Afghan farmers to welcome legalization that will put them at a distinct disadvantage with international competitors; nor would legalization provide any incentive for traffickers to forgo their illicit markets – they will, on the contrary, fight to maintain the high profits that they reap from the drug trade.
Internal CompetitionThe difference in price between licit and illicit opium is so considerable that it is unrealistic to assume that Afghan farmers would stop selling their product to drug traffickers. To compensate for this price difference would require substantial subsidies; these would be extremely expensive, particularly for a Government already struggling to provide basic social services.
Moreover, the Government of Afghanistan would be obligated to purchase opium stocks. The most likely result of any such program would be an exponential expansion of poppy cultivation, as more farmers would grow poppy for the guaranteed source of income. Given these realities, it is unlikely that the government of Afghanistan, even with the support of the international community, would be able to compete with the drug traffickers.
There are no simple solutions to a problem that has taken decades to develop. The cultivation of poppies in Afghanistan is the result of years of conflict and instability which has been systemically exploited by drug traffickers – leaving farmers with few other choices. For Afghanistan to develop a functioning economy, it needs to focus on diversifying and strengthening its internal and regional trade. A scheme to supply a phantom global demand for opiates would therefore not only be counter-productive to combating the illicit drug trade in Afghanistan, but also detrimental to building a viable and sustainable Afghan economy.
Legalization of opium would actually strengthen the illicit drug trade and undermine current efforts to foster security and sustainable economic development in Afghanistan. In the weakened security environment, corruption and violence would deepen, much to the benefit of insurgent groups and drug traffickers. The resulting expansion of poppy cultivation would also undermine fundamental efforts to develop a diversified Afghan economy, leaving Afghanistan precariously dependent on a single commodity.
Canada is taking Comprehensive Action
Canada's counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan support the Afghan National Drug Control Strategy developed by the Government of Afghanistan and agreed in London in January 2006. Canadian contributions support the four key priorities of the Strategy.
Canada has already provided $18.5 million for alternative development projects in Kandahar province, this in addition to the funding provided to rural development projects.
Assistance has also been provided to help prevent Afghans from abusing drugs and to provide treatment when they become addicted. Unfortunately, this is a growing problem in Afghanistan, a by-product of the drug trade.
On February 26th, Prime Minister Harper bolstered the Canadian commitment to support Afghanistan and the efforts of Afghans to stop the drug trade by committing a further $30 million to counter-narcotics activities in Afghanistan.
This funding will directly support the Afghan National Drug Control Strategy and help the Afghans:
- build the capacity of counter-narcotics law enforcement so that traffickers are apprehended;
- develop narcotics related elements of the judicial system so that traffickers can be brought to justice;
- target the smuggling of precursor chemicals used to make heroin into Afghanistan; and
- work with their neighbours to jointly combat cross-border trafficking.
Concrete, sustained support for Afghan efforts – in line with the priorities set by the Afghan Government – will yield results in countering illicit opium production over the long-term. Short-term fixes – like legalizing Afghan opium production – are not the answer.
