by Justin Page

Created on: November 26, 2008

Introduction

Whenever the United States bans a substance here, the production of that substance simply moves somewhere else. The production shifts to places where regulation is either lacking or simply non-existent. Many times this is due to the fact that the country where the production moves to is either openly or quietly anti-American. The result of this happening is that the profit from the substance in gained by criminals.

Discussion of Findings

Opium has been around for a long time. It was legal in the United States until the 1900's. Opium which is extracted from the opium poppy is the mother drug of a class of drugs known as opiates, or narcotics. These drugs range from legal applications like Vicodin and Morphine, to street drugs like heroin.

Heroin seems to be one of the most despised drugs and therefore it is illegal to cultivate the opium poppy here in the United States. Despite this fact, heroin addicts have no problem finding the drug here on the streets of America. Currently most opium poppy cultivation is conducted in Afghanistan. According to one article, "Opium production in Afghanistan, which provides more than 90 percent of the world's heroin, broke all records in 2006, reaching a historic high despite U.S. sponsored eradication efforts, the Bush administration reported Dec. 1." (De Young 98).

Afghanistan is the country formerly ran by the Taliban. Although the Taliban no longer officially runs the country their presence is still overpowering there. Within the Taliban, Anti-American sentiments are strong, and they are heavily involved in the terrorist operations. Basically, any profits gained by the Taliban have the potential to be used against the United States in terror strikes.

Many of the opium fields in Afghanistan are ran by the Taliban. The other fields are run by poor farmers. In another article, a contractor hired by the DEA tells of his dismay of only being able to secure the support of Afghani forces when they were destroying the fields of the poor farmers. When the security contractors attempt to destroy the fields of the Taliban the Afghani police pull back and the contractors are attacked. Speaking of one field in particular one contractor remarks, "Someone powerful obviously controls this field." (Anderson 97).

The current government in Afghanistan claims to be pro-American. However this is simply a ploy to secure American funding. In reality the current government is more beholden to the Taliban. This is because the Taliban's

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