{"id":78740,"date":"2016-09-05T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T11:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=78740"},"modified":"2016-09-01T15:09:32","modified_gmt":"2016-09-01T14:09:32","slug":"afghan-opium-production-40-times-higher-since-us-nato-invasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/09\/afghan-opium-production-40-times-higher-since-us-nato-invasion\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan Opium Production 40 Times Higher since US-NATO Invasion"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 90 percent of the world’s illegal opium is estimated to come from Afghanistan.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A poppy field in Afghanistan’s Jalalabad province | Photo: Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a031 Aug 2016 – <\/em>Since the U.S.-led NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the production of opium in the country has increased by 40 times according to Russia\u2019s Federal Drug Control Service, or FSKN, fueling organized crime and widespread death.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>US ‘Owns’ Afghanistan: Ex-President Hamid Karzai<\/a><\/p>\n

The head of the FSKN, Viktor Ivanov, explained the staggering trend at a March U.N. conference on drugs in Afghanistan. Opium growth in Afghanistan increased 18 percent from 131, 000 hectares to 154, 000, according to Ivanov\u2019s estimates.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfghan heroin has killed more than one million people worldwide since the \u2018Operation Enduring Freedom\u2019 began and over a trillion dollars has been invested into transnational organized crime from drug sales,\u201d said Ivanov according to Counter Current News.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Bolivian Government Seizes Tons of Cocaine Headed to the U.S.<\/strong><\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=J04E0SisMsQ<\/p>\n

Prior to the invasion of Afghanistan, opium production was banned by the Taliban, although it still managed to exist. The U.S. and its allies have been accused of encouraging and aiding in the opium production and the ongoing drug trafficking within the region. Ivanov claimed that only around 1 percent of the total opium yield in Afghanistan was destroyed and that the \u201cinternational community has failed to curb heroin production in Afghanistan since the start of NATO\u2019s operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>Former Afghan President Says US Airstrikes More Harm Than Good<\/a><\/p>\n

Afghanistan is thought to produce more than 90 percent of the world\u2019s supply of opium, which is then used to make heroin and other dangerous drugs that are shipped in large quantities all over the world. Opium production provides many Afghan communities with an income, in an otherwise impoverished and war-torn country. The opium trade contributed around $US2.3 billion or around 19 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP in 2009 according to the U.N.<\/p>\n

Around 43 percent of drugs produced in Afghanistan are moved through Pakistan, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.<\/p>\n

The Islamic State Group is reported to have recently taken over opium production and trafficking. In November<\/a>, the extremist group was estimated to be earning over $US 1 billion from the opium trade. Profits also go to international drug cartels and money-laundering banks.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 telesurtv.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About 90 percent of the world’s illegal opium is estimated to come from Afghanistan. Profits also go to international drug cartels and Western money-laundering banks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}