Afghan hash at an all-time high

[ensho]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LD20Df02.html


In addition to being the world's leading producer of opium, Afghanistan has now become the largest producer of hashish, according to the first-ever cannabis survey released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) this month. Again, the US invasion is behind the new record.

The 2009 Afghanistan Cannabis Survey revealed that there is large-scale cannabis cultivation in half (17 out of 34) of Afghanistan's provinces, covering a total area of 10,000 to 24,000 hectares every year (lower than opium cultivation, which covers 125,000 hectares). Afghanistan's crop yield is so high at 145 kilograms of resin per hectare that it overtakes other leading producers like Morocco, where cannabis covers a larger land area but whose yield is lower, at 40 kg/ha.

It is estimated that Afghanistan produces 1,500-3,500 tons of hashish annually, an industry involving 40,000 households. The total export value of Afghan hashish is still unknown, but its farm-gate value - the income paid to farmers - is estimated at about US$40-$95 million, roughly 15% that of opium ($438 million in 2009).

Abundance of supply fuels demand, making hashish the most commonly used drug in Afghanistan, whose more than 500,000 users are mostly men. Marijuana, the other drug that can be obtained from the cannabis plant, is a minor product in Afghanistan as compared with hashish. Farmers choose to grow cannabis mainly because it sells at a higher price than licit crops and even opium, fetching over $3,000/ha compared to $2,000 for opium and $1,000 for wheat. Many farmers grow both drugs but opium is still more important, in part because cannabis has a short shelf life and is a summer crop (when less water is available for irrigation).

-snip-

King Zahir Shah (1933-1973), under whose rule cannabis cultivation was allowed in Afghanistan, even encouraged farmers to use fertilizers to boost exports to the West, before outlawing cultivation in the early 1970s under pressure from Richard Nixon, who had just launched his war on drugs. The Afghan police succeeded in eradicating a lot of the cannabis crops, but conveniently, cannabis farms controlled by Afghan government officials were spared, a bias reminiscent of today's situation.

(that rat Nixon)

-long snip of which country did what to interfer-
--------------------------------

hash is ok by me

wish I had some

weed and hash are friendly to the elderly

[era veteran]

1. The best in the world

1975 in Frankfurt FRG $0.65 a gram. Made the Army tolerable.

[Oceansaway]

2. Opium the door !!...n/t

[HughMoran]

3. I love hash!

Corned beef and the kind you smoke!!

[madokie]

7. especially the smoking kind

[HughMoran]

8. melllllow

:smoke:

[Warpy]

4. I remember getting some blonde hash supposedly from there

back in the early 70s. It was lovely stuff, not quite as kickass as red hash, but sweet and mellow.

I would dearly love to get some again before I die of boredom under a puritanical fascist nanny state.

[era veteran]

14. Usually blond was Lebanese, Red was called choke red.

[madrchsod]

5. although i prefer nepalese

i certainly would`t turn down some afghan hashish......

[madokie]

6. sure wish I had some of that to cook with

They busted a trailer with 1500 lbs of pot in it in tulsa yesterday. We don't get the good stuff here, too many cheap skates who only want ditch weed, etc.

[Locrian]

9. Afghan hash at an all-time "high"

Someone with a sense of humor wrote that headline

[The_Commonist]

10. Tomorrow would be a good day for some hash.

4/20
Too bad I haven't been able to find it in years...

[piratefish08]

11. I will break out the celebratory baggie of medicine. and fungus.

:fistbump:

[Brother Buzz]

12. Cannabis has a short shelf life ?

I don't understand. :shrug:

[unhappycamper]

13. U.S Marines have been strolling thru the poppy fields of Afghanistan during the Marjah 'offensive'.

They were told to ignore the poppies as their destruction would piss off the Afghan farmers. (And I'm sure the CIA approved.)

[Rex]

15. Wonder how many soldiers are smoking it to 'get by'?

[era veteran]

17. Almost all E-5's & below

[eridani]

16. So to speak

It's always 4:20 somewhere.