Cultivating opium has always been profitable in Afghanistan, but it has never been so important for survival, and now is at a much higher production than it was at before the war in October 2001. Afghanistan is now providing three quarters of the world's opium--nearly all of Europe's heroin. Drugs are now the chief source of funding for terrorists in southern Afghanistan.

The profit to be had is great considering last year's harvest of 3,400 tons, worth $1.2 billion in Afghanistan, is worth $25 billion by the time it gets to Europe as heroin. In short order the drug traders within Afghanistan will be processing the drugs themselves for greater profits. The profit of $1.2 billion dollars for the growers is double the Afghan government's yearly budget, and more than was spent by donor countries for reconstruction of Afghanistan last year.

Many regions ravaged by drought, the war, and continued warlord control have based their entire economy on growing illicit drugs. Perhaps as much as one third of the Afghan economy, opium is hardly mentioned in policy debate because it has become common and essential for survival. "In other countries they use opium for enjoyment. Here they grow that their children not die," said one Afghani, upon an anticipated visit by President Hamid Karzai to the impoverished Ghowr province. Even Pushtun herders have stopped transporting herds of livestock, but instead have made themselves important in the buying, selling, and trading of poppy.

The new Afghan policy body, the Counter-Narcotics Department (CND), is now in charge of enforcing what the government has declared illegal: the growing of poppy. Even though CND is being funded by the British government, they only have 28 staff officers and lack even a lab that could detect the drug after it is seized. The United States has shown little interest in supporting a crackdown on the drugs, as most of it never reaches the U.S. While America spends $11 billion a year in Afghanistan, warlords are becoming increasingly powerful. Yet there are several workable programs to fight drugs and put in other forms of crops, such as using European Union funded initiatives, or going after the problem like Iran does by getting rid of the local warlords involved.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld confirms the problem but does not seem to care if it is dealt with. He argues that the drug problem simply has to do with demand, and that if opium was driven from Afghanistan, production would pop up in another weak country somewhere else in the world.

The fact that Afghanistan is still weak even with so much money being spent and so many lives being lost is dangerous and wasteful. The opium drug has a tradition in Afghanistan as a medicine because of the country's lack of medical care and even is used to curb appetite because of the lack of food. In a country where annual incomes are rarely as high as $170, and an opium farmer can earn as much as $6,500 a year, it is easy to see where Afghanistan is going to continue to head unless something is done.

Sources: The Economist, The Guardian, The New York Times, Associated Press.