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CNN Live Event/Special

America's New War: Taliban Has History of Opium Production

Aired October 01, 2001 - 14:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: In Afghanistan, the beginning of October launches the growing season for poppies. It is the first step toward a massive illicit opium market, accounting for a majority of the drug distributed around the world.

For a closer look at Afghanistan's poppy fields, we go to Atlanta and CNN's Donna Kelley -- Donna.

DONNA KELLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Aaron, thank you. In October, it is time to plant, and for a lot of farmers in Afghanistan, who are desperately poor, it's been poppies for opium to make into heroin that's been the crop of choice to make a lot more money than they would if they planted something like wheat. It's planted in the fall, and the harvest doesn't come until the spring, so it may be a while until we know what the size of the poppy crop may be for this next year.

In July of 2000, the Taliban banned growing opium and production dropped by about 97 percent. According to various sources from the United Nations to the State Department, Afghanistan had been the biggest producer of opium in the world. The Taliban taxed it and trafficked in the drug and then used it to finance military operations and so did the opposition Northern Alliance. An American official thought that it could be 40 to 50 million dollars a year that the Taliban was making from taxes and trading the drug. About 75 percent of the world supply of the product comes from Afghanistan.

And amid that official ban on cultivating opium, though, there were reports that farmers had been arrested for growing the product. But neighboring states say drugs are flowing from Afghanistan's borders.

The Taliban has publicly plowed under some poppy crops, as we'll show you in some pictures behind me. But critics say the size of the crop may have been grossly exaggerated. It may have already been harvested, and there are some reports that the Taliban may have stockpiled some of what's already been grown. The crops are a cash cow for the government and for the farmers.

So poppy grown at the expense of other more necessary crops for the people of Afghanistan. In fact, the greatest agricultural resources in the region are dedicated to the opium crop, land with irrigation systems, productive soils and the fertilizer that they use. The poppy industry exploded in the country in the past decade. In 1992, cultivation of the product stood at 20,000 hectares. That's about 44,000 acres.

Irrigation systems helped to fend the product off of the drought in the region. They've had a drought for about three years there.

By the year 2000, the poppy cultivation had risen to 64,000 hectares, which is about 140,000 acres.

Three years ago, though, the United States funded a non- governmental organization to improve irrigation for alternative crops. But after a few harvests of bumper crops, opium still seems to be the crop in favor for a lot of the Afghanistan farmers.

Since the terrorist attacks, the price of opium, though, has dropped dramatically. On the day of the attacks -- let us show you this -- September 11th, it was $700 a kilo. A kilo is a little more than two pounds. Then a week later on the 18th of September, it had dropped to $180 a kilo, and September 24th it was half of that price at 90 bucks a kilo.

Now, if the Taliban should lose control or if farmers choose not to go along with the current ban, or if the Taliban lifts the ban to get money to fight any upcoming military battles, all that may change the poppy planting and how much opium and heroin flows -- Aaron.

BROWN: Donna, just helps me on this. I assume when the price drops it's because more supply in the market, this being supply and demand. Is that it?

KELLEY: Aaron, it is part that, yes: supply and demand, and what might have been stockpiled. It is exactly supply and demand.

BROWN: So one might conclude they're flooding the market with opium right now if one were to think that way.

KELLEY: If they've got it stockpiled, that's right, and they're just kind of dumping it out on the market.

BROWN: Great. Donna, thanks. Donna Kelley in Atlanta this afternoon.

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