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Afghanistan hasn't been a significant source of US heroin in decades. The majority of heroin in the US is either from Mexico or Colombia these days. Source: htt

by yrLS1 11y ago

Afghanistan hasn't been a significant source of US heroin in decades. The majority of heroin in the US is either from Mexico or Colombia these days. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/09/24/pellets-planes-and-the-new-frontier/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/09/24/pellets.... No question Afghanistan is a huge opium producer, it's just that the majority of that product ends up in Europe, not in the US. PDF source: https://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr2014/Statistics/Opium_Heroin_cultivation_production_eradication.pdf https://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr2014/Statistics/Opium_Her...

ThrustVectoring 11y ago
That could still reduce the European demand for Mexican and Colombian heroin, driving down US prices, correct?
- yrLS1 11y ago
  I think there certainly is a case to be made that U.S. prices are lower because there is increased global supply. That increased supply drives down competition for South American / Mexican heroin, reducing prices for the U.S. market.
cushychicken 11y ago
I parsed the implications of the original statement as one of deployed troops picking up the habit rather than increasing the home front supply. Do you happen to have any stats about heroin abuse among Afghan vets?
- PhasmaFelis 11y ago
  I was reading it as claiming that the government that took power after the Taliban was "defeated" was ineffective at policing opium production. A glance at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanista... seems to support the idea that production increased substantially after the official Taliban government was removed.
- yrLS1 11y ago
  The only thing I could really find is here: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-04-21/afghanistan-soldier-drug-use/54450906/1 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-04-2... Long story short, the Army investigated 56 soldiers in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2011 for using / dealing. As for the bigger question, the military really is a subset of society. Veterans end up using the same things the rest of society does to escape their problems. Combine that with relatively easy access to pain meds and you get the same sad story we're dealing with everywhere else. Here's more info on that angle: https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/30/us-half-million-drug-dependent-veterans https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/30/us-half-million-drug-dep...

by yrLS1 11y ago

ThrustVectoring 11y ago

That could still reduce the European demand for Mexican and Colombian heroin, driving down US prices, correct?

yrLS1 11y ago
I think there certainly is a case to be made that U.S. prices are lower because there is increased global supply. That increased supply drives down competition for South American / Mexican heroin, reducing prices for the U.S. market.

cushychicken 11y ago

I parsed the implications of the original statement as one of deployed troops picking up the habit rather than increasing the home front supply. Do you happen to have any stats about heroin abuse among Afghan vets?

PhasmaFelis 11y ago
I was reading it as claiming that the government that took power after the Taliban was "defeated" was ineffective at policing opium production. A glance at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanista... seems to support the idea that production increased substantially after the official Taliban government was removed.
yrLS1 11y ago
The only thing I could really find is here: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-04-21/afghanistan-soldier-drug-use/54450906/1 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-04-2... Long story short, the Army investigated 56 soldiers in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2011 for using / dealing. As for the bigger question, the military really is a subset of society. Veterans end up using the same things the rest of society does to escape their problems. Combine that with relatively easy access to pain meds and you get the same sad story we're dealing with everywhere else. Here's more info on that angle: https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/30/us-half-million-drug-dependent-veterans https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/30/us-half-million-drug-dep...