Afghanistan and Mexico Case Study

Question 1

Which drugs can be found in Colombia and Mexico ?

Answer 1

All the world’s cocaine: Colombia, Peru, Bolivia

Some heroin: Colombia, Mexico

Opioids (e.g., fentanyl)

Question 2

What is the official story of Mexico ?

Answer 2

Cartel violence

Corruption (police, government, military)

US trying to help (War on Drugs)

Mexico’s “War on Drugs”

Question 3

How is Mexico involved in drug trade ?

Answer 3

• Producer, supplier of heroin, marijuana, opioids to US
• Transit country
• Cartel violence
• Americans finance drug traffickers
  – $15 billion yearly – Arms as well

Question 4

What was the situation in Mexico like in 1990s - 2000s ?

Answer 4

• Mexico’s increased role
  – Diversion
  – NAFTA
  – PRI to PAN (2000-2012) to PRI
• Opioids: China connection

Question 5

What is the initial intervention plan in Mexico ?

Answer 5

• Merida Initiative
• 2008-2021: $3.5 bn in military + counternarcotics aid
• 2022-on: Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health, and Safe Communities (less military, lower scale)

Question 6

How did the Merida initiative work out ?

Answer 6

Number of murders more than doubled since 2008 (when the initiative started) until 2020.

Question 7

What is the criticism of the Merida initiative ?

Answer 7

• Armoring NAFTA – Zapatistas
• Human rights violations
  – Indigenous and civil society groups (Chiapas, Oaxaca)
• Funds corrupt police and military
• Gift to US arms industry
  – Helicopters
• No to treatment, development; yes to militarization

Question 8

Describe the opioid crisis in Mexico ?

Answer 8

1999-2021
645,000 opioid overdose deaths in US; 100,000 drug overdoses in 2022
* 6 x more overdoses in 2021 than1999
* Opioids : natural or synthetic : oxycodone, fentanyl
* Opiates : natural opioid : opium morphine, heroin, codeine

Question 9

What is the first wave of opioid overdose deaths ?

Answer 9

Rise in the prescription of opioids.

Deaths started in 1990s.

Commonly prescribed opioids (natural, semi-synthetic opioids and methadone)

Oxycodone (semisynthetic opioid) sold under brand name OxyContin

• Purdue Pharma, Sackler family
  – $35 billion from OxyContin!

Question 10

How did advertising play a role in the first wave of overdose related deaths ?

Answer 10

Aggressive marketing

– $20 bn in marketing annually (for whole US Pharma industry)
* Free trips to pain management seminars for doctors
* Philanthropy to gain respectability

Question 11

What are some media representations of this crisis ?

Answer 11

1. Dopesick series
2. Painkiller

Question 12

What is the second wave of opioid overdose deaths ?

Answer 12

1. Began in 2010
2. Rise in Heroin consumption.

Was mostly do to Heroin.

Question 13

What are some failures of attempts at mitigating the first wave of opioid related deaths ?

Answer 13

• Failure of regulation + profit motive
• Revolving door + political donations
• Thousands of lawsuits (states, local governments, tribes, etc.)
• Purdue bankrupt 2019
• Settlement: $6 bn paid by Sacklers but immunity from future lawsuits

Question 14

What is the third wave of opioid overdose deaths ?

Answer 14

Caused by Fentanyl - 50 x stronger than heroin and 100 x stronger than morphine.

Question 15

What are the geopolitics of drug production ?

Answer 15

Heroin: mostly from Mexico,+ Latin America
* Fentanyl: China (directly, then (2019) chemicals) + Mexico
* Felbab-Brown vs. Lancet

Question 16

What is Afghanistan’s role in the production and distribution of drugs ?

Answer 16

Used to supply 90% of world’s opium and heroin

It seems that production has dropped 95% since 2022 and that cultivation has become hyper concentrated in one area, the south.

Question 17

Why are people cultivating poppy in Afghanistan ?

Answer 17

• Insecurity
  – Cultivation in South–
  insurgency
• Alternative livelihoods vs. eradication

Question 18

What are some key historical dates for Afghanistan ?

Answer 18

1979-89: Soviet invasion – Mujahideen resistance

1990-96: Mujahideen civil war

1996-2001: Taliban

2001-2021: NATO

2021-present: Taliban

Question 19

What was the situation like in Afghanistan in the 1980s concerning the production of drugs ?

Answer 19

Pre-1979:regional trade only
* Afghan cultivation, Pakistan heroin
* Mujahideen order peasants to grow poppies

But in the 80s :
Hekmatyar
– Half CIA aid
– Druglord
* “Double Pipeline”

Question 20

How did this play out during the Taliban’s seize of power (1996-2001) ?

Answer 20

Poppy was a large source of taxation

2000 Ban

International isolation

Question 21

What has the situation been in Afghanistan concerning the production / cultivation and distribution of drugs from 2001-2021 ?

Answer 21

1. Support for warlords and druglords (Northern Alliance, Pashtun war/druglords)
   – $M, weapons
2. Drug traffickers in parliament
3. Eradication vs. alternative development
4. 25 % of total GDP
   * $3.5billion
   – 20% farmers
   – 5% Taliban
   – 75% Traffickers, police, government
5. $100,000 to be police chief at$150/month
6. Flower trail vs. money trail
7. No / few major arrests of traffickers

Question 22

What has the situation been in Afghanistan concerning the production / cultivation and distribution of drugs since 2021 ?

Answer 22

2022 narcotics cultivation ban by the Taliban

1. Opium production drops by 95%
2. Heroin export drops from 500 tons (2022) to 30 (2023)
3. Big challenge is to makeup for farmers’ lost income
4. Potential disruptions to global heroin trafficking—replacement by other drugs ? Cf. Dublin