Tighter security will reduce flow of heroin

A local official calls Afghanistan's Taliban 'no different from the Colombian cartel.'
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- War against Afghanistan's Taliban and the tightening of security at U.S. borders will reduce the amount of street drugs available in the Mahoning Valley, an official said.
David Allen, commander of Mahoning Valley Drug Task Force, said he expects drug supplies, especially heroin, to start drying up in a month or two.
One reason is tightened security at U.S. borders and ports and closer inspections of trucks and airplanes coming into the country since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Allen said.
A second reason, he explained, is the bombing of Afghanistan, a country that supplies 75 percent of the world's heroin, exporting 476 metric tons each year with half coming to the United States and the rest going to Europe.
Taliban control: Since 1998, Afghanistan has seen an increase of nearly 25 percent in its global output of the poppy plants, which form a primary ingredient in heroin, he said. He added that the drug trade there is controlled by the Taliban government. With war being waged on the Taliban, the output of heroin will come to a halt.
"In the next month or so, it's going to start cutting into the local dealers. It's not going to be as accessible as it has been," Allen said.
Allen foresees more drug addicts' entering treatment facilities and the robbing of pharmacies for prescription drugs such as the pain reliever OxyContin and others that have become popular on the street.
In Afghanistan, Allen explained, the harvesting of poppies supports 1.5 million Afghans and is a $69 millon-per-year industry.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Afghanistan flooded the market with heroin, also expecting the coming drug drought, Allen said. But soon that flood will dry up as demand is not met by further supply.
Allen explained that the Taliban control 96 percent of the poppy-growing area. It gives farmers start-up money to grow crops and then taxes those farmers to the tune of $10 million per year. The government, in turn, buys the poppies from these farmers, processes them and exports the heroin product, all the while banning their use in Afghanistan. The farmers are paid just enough to support their families.
Allen referred to the Taliban as "no different from the Colombian cartel" and a group that survives, not on Osama bin Laden's bank roll, but on the drug trade. He expects the loss of heroin revenues will mean that the government's money supply will dwindle.
Shifting focus: Although the task force is still operating as usual, Allen said, the group will have to shift its focus once the drug trade begins to see these changes.
Allen said it's a positive sign to see the United States coming down hard on drug imports into the country, but added that it should have happened a long time ago.