Is the US or the Taliban responsible?

doi:10.1136/bmj.39577.543333.3A

BMJ 2008;336:1088 (17 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39577.543333.3A

Letters

Opium production in Afghanistan

Is the US or the Taliban responsible?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Working for a year in the Kabul children’s hospital inthe 1970s gave me a perspective on Afghanistan that conflictswith the Foreign Office’s view that "the Taliban is promotingopium production to finance terrorism."¹

The simple facts are that opium production was high under theUS influenced government of Afghanistan of the 1970s, decreased10-fold by 2001 under the Taliban, and then increased 30-foldand more under the US to the same level as in the 1970s.²

History shows us how empires function; be they British or US.The East India Company organised the opium trade through "freetraders"—men with fast ships and guns to fend off thepirates. One of the most famous free traders was Francis Light,founder of the British province of Penang. These are facts,whereas the idea that the CIA runs opium from Afghanistan wouldbe a conspiracy theory—unless, you thought about the United. . . [Full text of this article]

Simon J Spedding, medical adviser

¹ Department of Veterans Affairs, 199 Grenfell Street, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia

Simon.spedding@dva.gov.au