Kabul, Afghanistan. As the United States and NATO prepare to invade Afghanistan yet again, it is worth taking a hard look at why America can not leave Afghanistan. Its opioid addiction is out of control and the US government is the reason why.
Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since the US occupation started in 2001. Indeed, a brand new report from the United Nations finds that opium production is at an all-time high.
According to the report, cultivation of poppy across the war-torn nation rose 36 per cent in 2016 and total opium production amounted to 6,500 tons, up by almost a half since 2015.
“This has never been witnessed before in the history of Afghanistan,” said Darshitt Gohelle, the outgoing ombudsman of the Afghanistan office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which produced the report.
The US military has allowed poppy cultivation to continue in order to appease farmers and government officials involved with the drug trade who might otherwise turn against the Afghan Karzai government in Kabul. Fueling both sides, in fact, the opium and heroin industry is both a product of the war and an essential source for continued conflict.
Public Intelligence has published a series of photographs showing American – and NATO trained Afghani – troops patrolling poppy fields in Afghanistan. As America suffers through its worst opioid addiction, with oxycodone production at an all time high. The photos show you, your American tax dollars at work.
