Seven thousand deaths from heroin in the USA during 2014 can be directly traced to opium sourced from US-occupied Afghanistan claims a report by NY Congressional Candidate Will Edstrom published last week.
Six sevenths or Eighty Five percent of the world’s heroin, 6,400 tonnes, now comes from US-held Afghanistan. Ten thousand of the 4.5million US heroin users die every year.
The Taliban banned opium production outright in 2000. Since 2001, the area under opium cultivation has increased from less than ten thousand hectares to over 200,000.
Congress’s Take On The Heroin Epidemic
Members of Congress and candidates comment on the Heroin epidemic in the US.
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/08/congresss-take-on-the-heroin-epidemic/
A heroin epidemic is on fire all across America. Heroin deaths shot up from 1,779 in 2001 to 10,574 in 2014 as Afghan opium poppy fields metastasized from 7,600 hectares in 2001 (when the War in Afghanistan began) to 224,000 hectares currently. The Taliban outlawed opium in Afghanistan in 2000 and within a year it was all but gone, demonstrating that Afghan opium can be eradicated quickly for any administration that chooses to do so. Afghanistan is, by far, the number one source globally of both opium and heroin. In 2014, 7,554 tons of raw opium were produced worldwide, including 6,400 tons in US-occupied Afghanistan and 173 tons from Mexico and Colombia. US-occupied Afghanistan produces 85% of the world’s heroin. Mexico and Colombia produce only 2%.
