SPECPOL

Director

Vice-Chair

Moderator

TOPIC PREVIEW: THE AFGHAN DRUG TRADE - The drug trade in Afghanistan undercuts the international effort to bring peace, stability, and prosperity to the region. In recent years, poppy production—which is processed into opium and heroin—has spiked dramatically. Historically, the Taliban, which opposed drug production on religious grounds, successfully suppressed much of the trade. When Northern Alliance forces, supported by the United States and other western nations, liberated Afghanistan, however, farmers began to grow poppy again. Afghanistan has always been decentralized, and when Hamid Karzai's regime took power, local warlords capitalized on the government's weak state and used drugs to increase their wealth and power while bribing officials, hiring soldiers, and buying weapons. The average farmer earns significantly more growing poppy than they would other cash crops, creating little incentive to leave the trade. The Taliban now in the Helmand province have abandoned their opposition to growing the drug, prompting production to spike to 45% in 2007 and even higher in 2008. The repercussions of the situation extend beyond Afghanistan: the instability is bleeding into the tribal regions of Pakistan, and the US, NATO nations, and Afghanistan all seek to cut off the source of money for the Taliban and other insurgents, which means chopping poppy production. Furthermore, the US is the largest end market for Afghan heroin. The Special, Political and Decolonization committee will have to negotiate the thorny politics of international involvement and interests, as well as the various particulars of the situation itself, in attempting to reach a viable solution on this topic.