Monday, November 11, 2013
Kabul (BNA) The report released by the Counter Narcotics Ministry indicates that poppy cultivation has increased during the last year and requires the Afghan government in close cooperation of international community seriously struggle against this challenging phenomenon.
BNA commentator considering the fatal consequences of poppy cultivation writes terrorism and narcotics that deeply linked to each other bother the Afghan community the most. These problems are so widespread in Afghanistan, which widely damage the prestige and credibility of Afghanistan in international arena.
The Two notorious phenomenon that suffocate the people of Afghanistan in spite of all efforts made during the years, the Afghan authorities have failed to clean the name of Afghanistan from these two heinous phenomenon, which not threaten our country but the entire region even the world.
The recent report, jointly releases by Counter Narcotic Ministry of Afghanistan and UN counter Narcotics and Crime section points out that poppy cultivation has increased in Afghanistan and 72% of poppy cultivation of the world take place in southwestern provinces and once again put Afghanistan at the top of the list of narcotic drugs producers.
The other countries, which are involved in poppy cultivation alongside of Afghanistan, are Burma, Laos, Colombia, and Thailand.
The figures presented by UN show that the opium exported from Afghanistan in 2012 cost 1.9 b dollars while smuggling goods from the country bring huge sums to gangster groups.
The officials of Ministry of Counter Narcotics consider the reason behind the increase of poppy cultivation in the country insecurity in some parts of the country, increasing demand in the world level and raising the prices of the drugs.
While the authority of the ministry acknowledge to the increase of poppy cultivation in the country but point to the capturing of 3000 drug traffickers as great achievement. Can the claim acquit Afghan people and government in international level?
The fact is this, poppy is cultivated in Afghanistan and drug traffickers are active in the region and the world community consider Afghanistan the main source for exporting drugs to other countries and the reasons presented by Afghan officials cannot satisfy them. Therefore, it would be necessary, the policies regarding to the eradication of narcotic drugs should reviewed once again and effective measures should adopted to hit the target.
Since it is a regional and international problem, should be shared with them to find the final solution. If narcotics produces and processes in Afghanistan has its purchasers and consumer in other countries and there profitable markets therein. In addition, the chemical materials, which are using in processing of narcotic materials, imported in to Afghanistan from abroad. Meanwhile, the countries that claim suffering from exported drugs from Afghanistan, have not focused to the problem inside their countries. We are certain that addressing to above problems will lead to reduction of poppy cultivation and processing of narcotic materials in Afghanistan.
What the Afghan people want is to eradicate poppy cultivation and narcotics forever, because it is against their cultural and traditional values. Therefore, anti-narcotics campaign is one of the priorities of Afghan government.
To achieve this noble, the counter narcotics special brigade that operated in frame of Interior Ministry should revived, public awareness program should resume it activities and justice and judicial organs should act seriously against drug smugglers and finally the ground for saffron cultivation should be provided that is considered a good alternative for poppy cultivation.
The most important thing is that some neighboring countries use poppy cultivation in Afghanistan as means for obtaining their ambitious goals in the region, therefore, there is an urgent need to launch an international campaign against such evil intention in order to put an end to poppy cultivation and drug trafficking which, threats the life of people across the world.
T. Nemat
