Suspiciously, 2001 was a devastating year for opium, as the strict anti-drug Taliban in Afghanistan nearly destroyed all poppy crops after taking over the country. Now, increasing amounts of opium are being grown from poppies and trafficked into the United States from Afghanistan, making it more readily available and cheaper for addicts. The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) states that heroin from Afghan opium is the purest in the world. Orlando Ward, director of public affairs at the Midnight Mission in Los Angeles said, “I tell people, ‘If you’re using it, only use half or three-quarters of what you used to,’ because of the higher potency.”

According to a DEA report, Afghanistan’s poppy fields have become the fastest-growing source of heroin in America since the US-led “war on terror”. A DEA spokesman has since contradicted the increase of heroin in the US by denying the claims in his agency’s own report. Despite the DEA report, Garrison K. Courtney stated, “We are NOT seeing a nationwide spike in Afghanistan-based heroin.”

Afghanistan’s heroin share dwindled to 6 percent for much of the 1990’s. After the fundamentalist Taliban government was overthrown in 2001, opium production escalated. The production of Afghan opium used to produce heroin reached its highest level ever this year, accounting for 90% of the world’s supply of illicit opium.

With Afghanistan accounting for nearly the entire product in a multibillion dollar trade, it’s obvious that the benefactors are not the Afghans growing the poppies. Afghanistan still remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Though official US sources will claim that Afghan warlords and the Taliban are collecting this revenue, the surge in opium cultivation actually coincides with the US-led military operation which toppled that regime. In 2001, Taliban prohibition had caused the beginning of a worldwide heroin shortage for powerful interests. This fact is compounded when consider that the CIA was previously engaged in drug trafficking out of Afghanistan in the 1980’s as it supported the Mujahideen against the Soviets.

The connection between the CIA and the drug trade is well documented. The agency was accused by various US soldiers in Vietnam of smuggling opium into the United States to fund covert operations defending American corporate interests. It was also reported by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Gary Webb that the CIA was responsible for distributing cocaine into poor Los Angeles neighborhoods. Shortly after Webb exposed the CIA, he committed “suicide” by shooting himself in the head… twice.

During the Iran-Contra Affair, it was also concluded that members of the US State Department were involved in cocaine trafficking from Latin America. In fact, the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence in the CIA during the Iran-Contra Affair was Robert Gates. Yes, the same Gates who is now Secretary of Defense and heads military matters worldwide, including Afghanistan of course. With drug trafficking constituting the third biggest global commodity after oil and arms trades, do we truly believe that the Taliban is the benefactor, or the powerful business and financial interests sustained by US foreign policy? Please comment. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

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The third source contains a Dateline video report on the CIA drug trafficking Gary Webb exposed before his death. Alex Jones even adds a brief commentary at the end. Here is a direct link to the video.