poppy bush

The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) today released a study that adopts a critical view of the proposal for a licensing system that would legalize opium cultivation in Afghanistan as a step towards ending the narcotics trade in that country.

The global proceeds of the Afghan drug trade is in excess of 150 billion dollars a year. There is mounting evidence that this illicit trade is protected by the US military. Historically, starting in the early 1980s, the Afghan drug trade was used to finance CIA covert support of the Islamic brigades. The 2003 war on Afghanistan was launched following the Taliban government's 2000-2001 drug eradication program which led to a collapse in opium production in excess of 90 percent.