Rumors Persist That The CIA Helps Export Opium From Afghanistan

Submitted by Kit O’Connell via TheAntiMedia.org,
Despite billions spent to eradicate opium crops in Afghanistan, the crop is more popular than ever there, leading many to wonder whether some U. S. forces may actually be encouraging its growth and the heroin it later becomes.
In July, the Centers for Disease Control warned of record-breaking numbers of heroin deaths in the United States. ‘Heroin use more than doubled among young adults ages 18 – 25 in the past decade,’ the CDC reported.
In the same month, it was reported that opium production is stronger than ever in Afghanistan, which now produces 90 percent of the world’s supply of the plant that’s refined to create heroin. This rise in production would have been impossible prior to the U. S.-led invasion, and it comes despite some $8.4 billion spent in counternarcotics efforts by the U. S., specifically designated to wipe out opium production in Afghanistan.
In fact, as Global Post reported in October, under the watchful eye of the U. S., opium use expanded to new parts of Afghanistan and growers now make use of modern, advanced agricultural technologies.
With photos circulating in 2010 that show U. S. soldiers patrolling opium fields, questions remain about what America’s real involvement may be in the opium trade. As Abby Martin noted in a 2014 investigation for Media Roots, while the Taliban had all but eradicated opium, it began to thrive just months after American forces replaced the Taliban-led government in 2001.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 09/26/2015.