ABSTRACT
While narcotics production is distributed throughout the world, this chapter will focus particularly on Afghanistan, since drugs flowing from there have the greatest impact on Russia. In the 1990s, Afghanistan became one of the world’s main narcotics producers and the undisputed leader for heroin, one of the most dangerous drugs. Afghani plantations currently produce approximately 75–80 percent of the world’s opiates. According to UN estimates, from 1980 to 2003, the raw materials for opium production there increased twenty times, from 200 tons to 3,600 tons, while the financial value of the opium grew ten times, from $102 million to $1.02 billion. 1 After the record harvest of 4,600 tons in 1999, heroin production in Afghanistan fell sharply in 2001—to only 190 tons—as a result of drought and the anti-opium policies of the Taliban. In 2002, after the fall of the Taliban, opium production reached 3,400 tons. As a result of the increased output and production of opium-derived drugs, the opium industry effectively became the country’s largest economic sector. According to the UN, in 2003 opium production made up 23 percent of Afghanistan’s official gross domestic product (GDP), while narcotics transportation contributed an additional 29 percent, overall comprising 52 percent of the economy, or $2.3 billion. There were 264,000 farmers involved in opium production, meaning 1.7 million people if all of their family members are included, making up 7 percent of the country’s population.
