Afghanistan's Heroin Industry

Paper Summary:

This paper explores the development of the heroin industry in Afghanistan, its key players, the forms of political corruption, smuggling routes and interventions applied. The paper shows why controlling the drug industry in Central and Eastern Asia is an insurmountable task and posits that collaboration and commitment by the bordering countries of Afghanistan is required to strategically thwart the transfer of drugs to other countries. The paper also believes that hitting the industry economically is the only means of reducing the production and trafficking of heroin.

From the Paper:

"Afghanistan is an impoverished country, devastated from thirty years of war, prolonged drought, malnutrition, low life expectancy, and epidemic levels of HIV. It has created, and become, economically dependent upon a multi-billion dollar transnational heroin production, refining, and trafficking industry. In order to protect the industry, its political institution, which is completely corrupt and headed by drug lords, is alienated from and foreign to the contexts of mainstream political systems. Afghanistan has forcefully infiltrated surrounding countries as a means of forging smuggling pathways to Russia, Europe, and other global domains."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Carlson, B. G. (2005). Huseyin Baybasin: Europe's Pablo Escobar. SAIS Review, 25(1), 69-71.
• Copeman, M. (2003). Drug supply and drug abuse. Journal of the Canadian Medical Association, 168(9), p1113.
• Cornell, S. E. (2005). Stemming the contagion: Regional efforts to curb Afghan's heroin impact.Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 6(1), 23-32.
• Emery, J. (2000). A river of heroin. The World and I, 15(2), p60.
• Fazey, C. (2007). International policy on illicit drug trafficking: The formal and informal mechanisms. Journal of Drug Issues, 37(4), 755-780.

More papers on Afghanistan's Heroin Industry:

• Term Paper # 142035 : "My Name is Heroin"
• Essay # 143796 : "Why Do Heroin Overdoses Kill?"
• Research Paper # 96577 : "American Involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan"

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