Afghanistan Opium

U.S. Struggles To Curb Afghanistan's Opium Industry

The New York Times | Posted 05.27.2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — For years, American officials have struggled to curb Afghanistan’s opium industry, rewriting strategy every few seasons and p...

The President's Missing Notes on Afghanistan

Wilfredo Amr Ruiz | Posted 05.04.2012

Wilfredo Amr Ruiz

After more than a decade of military occupation and trillions of dollars spent, the general environment in Afghanistan is extremely dangerous and unsafe, even in the capital.

Afghan Women, Culture, and Development

American Anthropological Association | Posted 04.09.2012

American Anthropological Association

As an anthropologist conducting research in Afghanistan, I find that whenever the gaze of the international media falls on Afghan women I feel uncomfortable.

U.N. Reports Sharp Rise In Opium Production In Afghanistan

The New York Times | JACK HEALY | Posted 12.11.2011

Despite increased efforts to destroy fields of opium poppies and wean Afghan farmers off the country’s biggest cash crop, poppy cultivation in Afgha...

$350 Million Of Drugs Destroyed In Afghanistan

AP | RAHIM FAIEZ | Posted 11.28.2011

By RAHIM FAIEZ -- The Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Eight policemen were killed in an attack early Wednesday near a southern Afghan ci...

Few Treatment Options For Afghans As Drug Use Rises

The New York Times | ALISSA J. RUBIN | Posted 10.29.2011

KABUL, Afghanistan — Once a river flowed under the low Pul-i-Sokhta bridge here, but now the thin stream is clotted with garbage, the banks are pile...

David Wood

War Aways Unpopular, Gates Says, But 'We're on Path to Success' in Afghanistan

HuffingtonPost.com | David Wood | Posted 08.16.2011

WASHINGTON -- In late 2006, then defense secretary nominee Robert Gates was asked if he thought the United States was winning. In what was one of hi...

Afghan Infants Fed Pure Opium

CNN | Posted 05.25.2011

Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan (CNN) -- In a far flung corner of northern Afghanistan, Aziza reaches into the dark wooden cupboard, rummages around, and ...

Whole Communities Hooked On Heroin In Afghanistan

AP | HEIDI VOGT | Posted 05.25.2011

KABUL, Afghanistan — Drug addicts as young as a month old. Mothers who calm their children by blowing opium smoke in their faces. Whole communit...

Can Anyone Pacify the World's Number One Narco-State?

Alfred W. McCoy | Posted 05.25.2011

Alfred W. McCoy

Our only realistic choice in Afghanistan is serious rural development -- that is, reconstructing the Afghan countryside through countless small-scale projects until food crops become a viable alternative to opium.

U.S. Troops Fight Afghan Opium Farming

McClatchy | Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers | Posted 05.25.2011

MARJAH, Afghanistan -- U.S. Marine Sgt. Brad Vandehei stood on the edge of the small opium poppy field that serves as a central helicopter landing zon...

America's Drug Crisis: Brought to You by the CIA

Dave Lindorff | Posted 05.25.2011

Dave Lindorff

Next time you see a junkie sprawled at the curb, or read about someone who died of a heroin overdose, imagine a big yellow sign posted next to him or her saying: "Your Federal Tax Dollars at Work."

US Tells Afghans To Grow Grapes Not Opium Poppy

AP | KIM GAMEL | Posted 05.25.2011

KABUL — The Taliban make Afghanistan's opium business easy, offering credit, seeds and fertilizer to farmers to grow the drugs that fuel the ins...

Iraq, Afghanistan: Lessons From the Pros

Martin Varsavsky | Posted 05.25.2011

Martin Varsavsky

Failed policies in the Middle East could be reshaped by learning from those who have managed to do surprisingly well for themselves: the Israelis, the Iranians and the Afghan drug lords.

Afghanistan's Opium Boom May Be Over

Yahoo! News | VIVIENNE WALT | Posted 05.25.2011

Could Afghanistan's opium boom be over? Perhaps. According to the latest report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, opium cultivation has...

Afghanistan Elections Could Hinge On Provincial Poppy Production

The Washington Post | Pamela Constable | Posted 05.25.2011

FAIZABAD, Afghanistan -- The economic fortunes of Badakhshan province, a remote and wildly beautiful corner of far northeastern Afghanistan, have rise...

Is the Media Finally Getting it On Drug Policy?

Maia Szalavitz | Posted 05.25.2011

Maia Szalavitz

With the Mexican drug war completely out of control, Afghanistan supplying 90% of the world's opium, and our economy in collapse, the media has finally begun to seriously question our approach.

Obama Must End the War on Drugs -- or Mexico and Afghanistan Will Collapse

Johann Hari | Posted 05.25.2011

Johann Hari

We now have a chance to bankrupt the Mexican cartels, the Taliban, the Bloods and the Crips, and the gangs that are shooting their way across world -- before they cause the collapse of two countries.

2 1/2 Tons Of Marijuana Found In Afghan School

AP | JASON STRAZIUSO | Posted 05.25.2011

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan and coalition troops found and destroyed 2.5 tons of marijuana in an abandoned school in southern Afghanistan, while...

In Pictures: The Neglected War In Afghanistan

Huffington Post | Posted 05.25.2011

In the years since the initial invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the nation's attention has steadily turned away from a mission that the Bush administr...