Heroin trafficking from Afghanistan Research Paper

Heroin trafficking from Afghanistan - Research Paper Example Hence, heroin production and trafficking from Afghanistan is a major threat to humanity. Thesis statement: An investigation to unearth the role of Afghanistan in Heroin trafficking to global market and possible preventive measures. As pointed out, heroin production and trafficking is based on poppy cultivation and opium based drugs. The opium markets distribute raw opium to traders and they refine it with the help of precursor chemicals and produce heroin. But these refinement workshops are located near to the border areas and poppy farms. So the government control over these areas become limited and it helps the heroin traffickers to form a parallel governing system. The refinement workshops make use of typical equipments for the basic processing of opium. But further refining needs technical expertise and it is provided by some foreign chemists. Morphine base, crude form of heroine is produced from opium. But it is difficult to produce heroin from morphine base. For instance, the heroin traffickers make use of mobile labs to overcome this trouble. Innovative methods like usage of large trucks for the production of heroin help the traders to keep themselves away from the authorities. Some Afghani districts like Nangarhar’s Achin are notorious for heroin labs and large scale heroin production. Frank Clements in the work ‘Conflict in Afghanistan: a historical encyclopedia’ opines that large scale refinement of heroin in Afghanistan helps to smuggle the same through borders without further difficulties (Clements 78). When the refinement process becomes more difficult, cost and demand of pure heroin in the global market shows increasing tendency. Earlier, refining opium was done in Pakistan or Turkey. But in 1995, the Pakistani authorities destroyed illegal workshops and it helped to hinder heroin trafficking from Afghanistan to Pakistan. But the heroin traders discovered an innovative way to handle this situation. They