Europe and Afghan Heroin

Issue & Policy Briefs March 3, 2011, No. 57

As the war in Afghanistan reaches the decade mark, the effort to stem opium poppy cultivation has taken a turn for the worse. International efforts to defeat the Taliban have tapered into a regressed response to the problem that drugs play in this conflict. Anti-drug campaigns are floundering as opium prices rise, which acts as an incitement to continued and renewed farming. This could potentially further destabilize the previous efforts in a war in which there is a desperate need to show progress. Perhaps Europe can recognize a problem of which they are a part and find an alternative way to effectively address the issue at hand.

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