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Copyright 2001 Guardian Newspapers Limited The Guardian (London)

  October 3, 2001

  SECTION: Guardian Home Pages, Pg. 2

  LENGTH: 751 words

  HEADLINE: Blair's speech: Stockpiles : Experts back startling heroin
claims: Afghanistan source of 90% of drug on Britain's streets

  BYLINE: Alan Travis Home affairs editor

  BODY:

  The prime minister's startling claim yesterday that 90% of the
heroin sold on British streets comes from Afghanistan was backed up
last night by experts in the drug trade and radical law reformers.

  "The arms the Taliban are buying today are paid for with the lives
of young British people buying their drugs on British streets," said
Tony Blair. "That is another part of their regime that we should seek
to destroy."

  Afghanistan's world domination in the heroin trade stems from a
record crop of 4,600 tonnes in 1999. "All the information coming from
intelligence sources and customs and excise suggests that it really
is true," said Roger Howard, chief executive of the drug information
charity, Drugscope. "They had absolutely ideal growing conditions
that year and the amount they produced was 75% of the entire world
production for that year. A good 90% of the heroin in the UK comes
from Afghanistan. It may be more," he said.

  Last year, a Taliban edict banned the growing of opium poppies and
UN observers reported that by earlier this year the crop had been
practically wiped out. In response, several western countries,
including Britain, pledged aid to destitute Afghan farmers during the
summer.

  But the Home Office said last night that large stockpiles of the
1999 crop ensured supplies to the British market and street prices
have remained stable. It is officially estimated that there are some
270,000 heroin users in Britain consuming about 30 tonnes a year with
a street value of pounds 2.3bn.

  The Taliban is not the recipient of all this money, but it is an
important link in the chain of production.

  The farmers sell to traders, believed to include Taliban leaders and
commanders as well as Afghan, Iranian and Pakistani traders. Most of
the crop production is centred on the Taliban controlled area of
Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, but there is also some in areas
controlled by the opposition Northern Alliance.

  A Home Office spokesman said there were reports that the price of
opium on the Afghan-Pakistan border has dropped by 80% in the last
three weeks from pounds 460 a kilo to pounds 100 a kilo, raising
fears of a flood of heroin to the west.

  "People who are stockpiling it are offloading their supplies
probably in anticipation of the developments that are to take place
and to raise money for arms supplies," he said. "But we do not
believe the UK is about to be flooded with cheap heroin because we
have a steady supply and a steady street price."

  Tamara Makarenko, a Glamorgan University criminologist who has
studied the world heroin trade, said that according to statistics
from the UN drugs control programme, heroin production increased by
100% between 1988 and 1991 to 2,000 tonnes and then expanded to the
bumper harvest of 4,600 tonnes in 1999.

  "By the end of 1999 Afghanistan was said to produce 75% of the
global supply of opium, from which 80% of global heroin was produced."

  This big stockpile drove the traffickers to find new routes and by
the end of last year only 20-30% was going to Europe by the usual
Iranian-Turkish route. Last year some 40 Iranian border guards died
trying to combat the Afghan drug trade.

  Ms Makarenko said the Afghan and Pakistani traders have found a new
northern route through the old Soviet republics of Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and through Russia.

  Mr Howard said this heroin had found a ready market in Britain where
the "age of first use" is coming down as teenagers smoke the drug. It
carries less of the "junkie" stigma that scared previous generations:
teenagers are progressing to heroin much more quickly.

  Last night the home secretary, David Blunkett, talked down fears of
British streets being flooded by cheap Afghan heroin being sold on
the world market to raise funds for arms.

  He said the street price of heroin had not risen when the Taliban
banned production and he did not believe that it would be in cheap
supply if they now started actively selling off stocks.

  The government's efforts to tackle the Afghan drug trade include a
five-year strategy to see that new entrants to the European Union
have effective controls on their external borders. This policy is
aimed principally at Turkey, traditionally the site of the heroin
factories where raw opium is turned into heroin.

  But Ms Makarenko's warnings that the traffickers have opened a new
northern route through the old Soviet republics may mean a new
strategy is called for.



  LOAD-DATE: October 3, 2001

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