Is the rise in heroin abuse in the US since its occupation of Afghanistan merely a coincidence?

Follow the money.

Who makes money if there is a big heroin crop?

Remember that we have an anti-drug industry here in the US. (and in most Western countries). If the heroin business dried up, then those policemen and drug enforcement folks would be out of a job. It isn’t in their interest to stop the flow of drugs.

Remember that the US Government (CIA in particular) used to import heroin (and other good stuff) to Europe and the US back in the era of the Viet Nam war. Sure, it’s 40 years later, but money is still green.

@SquirrelEStuff , you are making the assumption that the US wants to stop drug growing. I think your initial assumption is wrong.

If I wanted to weaken and destroy a country one of the tines of my multi-pronged approach would be to introduce large volumes of an extremely addictive substance that I could get at low cost.
The loss in productivity, the increased crime, the policing to reduce the crime, the hospitalizations, the deaths, the permanent brain injuries and therapy would bleed the country.

The Taliban allowed for the trade of opium. However, they did not permit its use. TED Taliban Poppy

If the residents of the target country were smart they would realize it was happening and stop using. But we know that isn’t going to happen. Instead, we will work on an antidote and spend billions making sure it is available for everyone so we can save lives.

No. It’s cheap which is the reason for its favored use. I read that in two different places recently.

According to this article 93% or more of the heroin sold in the US comes from Mexico and Colombia.

@jaytkay: But does it originate in Mexico and Colombia or does it originate elsewhere, and it’s trafficked through Mexico because of the lax border patrol?

I saw a show about this years ago. They said some soldiers were bringing it back because it’s so tempting, easy and sells for a lot of money in the US. I don’t know if it’s true or not.

@jca 93% or more of the heroin sold in the US originates from Mexico and Colombia.

It’s smuggled in by the Mexican cartels.

Drugged out citizens are a fair price Uncle Sam is willing to pay to have a puppet government in the Middle East as a base for running spy missions or drone attacks.

It isn’t possible to appreciably correlate the relationship between heroin consumption in the United States and our occupation of Afghanistan.

That being said, the one undeniable fact regarding the occupation and heroin is that our being there resulted in an enormous spike in heroin production and trafficking along with the necessary corruption to render it viable. In fact, it would be correct to state that the major achievement of our 14 year involvement in the country has been the entrenchment of an ungovernable narco state with poppy cultivation as the primary and indispensible basis of the country’s economy. While our own steeply climbing heroin consumption is almost certainly the result of of the huge expansion of heroin production in our own neighboring narco state of Mexico, the Afghan “miracle” is flooding Europe and Asia with potent heroin at ever declining prices.

Before the US went in and ‘Liberated’ Afghanistan, the Taliban had outlawed the growing of the heroin poppy, or what was grown was highly regulated for the registered medical trade. They were so successful, that the 2000 irradiation program they undertook was praised publicly in the UN and the world was actually facing a heroin shortage. The farmers were growing crops that didn’t earn them big bucks, but they were encouraged and given incentives by the Taliban government. Now, that’s all gone. The farmers are back to chasing the money and the occupational forces turn a blind eye because they aren’t there as DEA agents, they are there as ‘Liberators’. And now there aren’t there any more and it’s back to the wild wild west and it is benefiting the Taliban because they are cashing in, but mostly it is the wholesale and retail sales and the money laundry that is seeing the most benefit and that is all taking place in the West.
Here is a VERY well researched and written article about it: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-spoils-of-war-afghanistan-s-multibillion-dollar-heroin-trade/91

@jaytkay

The heroin may be produced in Mexico or Columbia or wherever, but the poppy used in its production comes mostly from Afghanistan.

@Darth_Algar

The CIA says Mexico is the second largest poppy cultivator.

And here’s an article about Colombia and Mexican poppy production.

I did not come across anything about Afghanistan poppies exported to the Americas. I wasn’t looking for that, though.

I’m not posing as an expert, just showing what I found Googling about heroin and poppy production.

If you have some source that shows poppies being smuggled to the Americas feel free to share it.

@jaytkay did you read the article I linked to?

@cazzie

The only mention I see in the article of Afghan heroin in the US is from the 1990s.

Oh, so you don’t care about the level of production, as long as it doesn’t end up in the US….. Gottcha. The rest of the world can have at it. You realise that because of the level of production in the world, where ever it comes from, it has driven down the price everywhere so that a hit of heroin is the about the same as a 12 pack of beer, making more pervasive. It doesn’t matter where the stuff is grown and made. What matters is that there is so much of it and the powers that be don’t give a rats because it is fuelling a black economy that benefits them and kills people.

I get a bit hissy about this subject. I will be a year in February that we lost a family member. She was suffering post partum depression and self medicated and ended up killing herself.

@cazzie Sorry to hear about losing your family member.

The question here was about “the rise in heroin abuse in the US ”, so no, I was not addressing usage elsewhere.

I am just sharing what I found while trying to answer the question.

Shit, the CIA. That’s a source I certainly trust for information about the illicit drug trade.