Volume 18 No 18 April 2002
Science & Technology
Poppy After Talibans
The violent protests by farmers in various parts of Afghanistan against the ban on poppy cultivation show that they are not ready to accept the one time financial support offered by the Americans
It was a sickening experience for me. The nauseating smell of the heroin was going to my head. But, Haji Adeel Khan [name changed] and his two helpers in the heroin laboratory in a remote corner of Ningarhar were completely at ease.
The small room or the heroin laboratory had only one door and no windows. The accumulating odour of the heroin and the smoke from the traditional kerosene stove can become unbearable for anybody who is not addicted to heroin. Haji and his two helpers had virtually become heroin addicts after working in the heroin laboratory for a number of years.
Haji smiled while he explained the process of turning opium into heroin in his small laboratory. The heroin laboratories are probably the simplest form of any laboratories. These can be set up, or dismantled, anywhere in a matter of a few minutes. "The opium and the acetic anhydride are the only ingredients they use to manufacture heroin," Haji said, "The heat from a traditional kerosene-oil stove is enough to turn opium into heroin." They are usually set up in remote areas so that they remain away from the eyes of the international law-enforcers. That is why some of the heroin laboratories continued to function in Afghanistan, away from the eyes of the Taliban, by importing opium from the Northern Afghanistan.
“You need seven kilograms of opium and two litres of acetic anhydride to manufacture one kilogram of heroin,” Haji explained. “You put seven kilograms of opium into a big [round] pot and pour two litres of acetic anhydride on top of it. Then you burn fire under the pot. Within half an hour, you get one kilogram of heroin.” He added, "You must keep stirring the opium and acetic anhydride in the pot so that the whole stuff gets equal heat," to get quality heroin."
During a normal working day, they can manufacture

Greater Risk, More Profit

The Americans seem to be in a fix on how to overcome the rising menace of narcotics in Afghanistan, unleashed after the fall of the Taliban. Afghanistan has been a major source of illicit heroin to Pakistan and the rest of the world. In 2000, nearly 70 per cent of illicit heroin in the European markets came from Afghanistan.
The only solution they have thought of, at least in the short term, is to dissuade the farmers with money.
The armed Americans, probably belonging to the personnel of the US Special Forces, are going to the farmers to persuade them to destroy the poppy crops, which are almost ready to be harvested, with money. They offer them $500 or Rs 30,000 per hectare if they agree to destroy their standing crop. Wearing civilian clothes, they are carrying out the same exercise all over the war-ravaged country. According to several Afghan eyewitnesses, they carried suitcases full of dollars with them when they approached the Afghan poppy cultivators.
Apparently, they have not met any significant success in persuading the Afghan farmers to destroy their crops. This amount is not even peanuts as compared to what the farmers invested in the poppy crops and can earn by selling the opium in the market. One hectare of good land can produce as much as 150 kilograms of opium. However, this does not mean that the poppy brings riches to the farmers. Farmers spend up to Rs 250,000 on the agricultural inputs to cultivate poppy on one hectare. At the current prices of opium in Afghanistan, the farmer can earn up to Rs 400,000 per hectare. This means a profit of merely Rs 150,000 per hectare. The prices are likely to fall further in the coming weeks.
Very few Afghan farmers own or can afford to rent as much as one hectare to cultivate poppy. Even when they do, they have to feed and clothe large extended families. Most of the farmers are heavily indebted to the interest-seeking moneylenders. Almost all the farmers had borrowed either to keep the bodies and souls of their families together or to sow the poppy crop. In the war-ravaged Afghanistan, poppy is the only crop that can bring marginal profits to the farmers. They sow other crops such as wheat or vegetables only for their own consumption because, in most cases, they do not even have the means to market them.
The huge profits usually go to the narco-traffickers. from, among other countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey are always present in Afghanistan. All others from farmers to heroin-manufacturers to opium dealers get hardly enough to survive. This is the principle of the trade; the more risk you take, the more you earn.