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Afghanistany Drug Trafficking

Afghanistan has faced many problems in the last couple of years. They have dealt with wars, terrorists, violent governments, and many other threats. The more recent threat now comes in the form of a flower. This flower, opium, is used to make the drug heroin. This drug has a strong hold on Afghanistan and many other Middle Eastern countries.
When America declared war on Afghanistan this drug trafficking was one of the problems that many people thought would be fixed. Many people believed that since most of this trade would stop due to the ousting of the Taliban regime. The contrary has happened. Not only has the heroin exporting remained profitable, the profitability has increased.
When the Taliban had control, they would tax and regulate the exporting of this drug. Since the Taliban has been eradicated the taxing has stopped, thus making the profit on a kilo of heroin increase. This product would be taxed at 10% for all produced and an additional 20% for the entire product exported. With these taxes being lifted now these drug traffickers are making anywhere from 10-30% in additional profit.
With the ones profiting being terrorist supporters and current government officials, this problem can only get worse. In 2001 Afghanistan produced over $1 billion in opium, just two years later in 2003 this number grew to over $2.3 billion. Now in 2006 this number has ballooned to over $3 billion.   These exports account for almost two thirds of the total gross domestic product produced in Afghanistan.
With estimates of 10% being received my terrorist groups, this mean that these groups are now receiving over $300 million a year in funding for these international activities. This has become a major concern for many of the powerful countries who are threatened by terrorist attacks. This concern mounts when you take into affect the growing rate of production.
Farmers have elected to grow opium instead of their past crop of choice, wheat. This change has accounted for...