Co-operative efforts are being taken to combat the opium traffic on a regional basis, under the leadership of Iran and Turkey, and Afghanistan will be invited to participate. At the same time one must recognize that Afghanistan is a very poor country* with a gross national product of only $65 per head, based on 1965 figures". Elimination of indigenous opium production in the absence of mitigating measures, would probably have a disastrous impact on the economy.
The major world market for near East opium narcotics is the U.S.A., where the high dollar prices for illicit products provide a powerful incentive to the criminal trafficker (Table 3). Britain and the other Western countries represent a potential and rapidly growing market. Much of the heroin illicitly introduced into North America comes from Europe where opium and crude morphine base from the Near and Middle East are processed. The United States has long recognized that this illicit traffic largely consists of a diversion of official Turkish opium to illegal channels through Marseilles where the conversion to heroin is carried out in clandestine laboratories. In an unprecedented move to eliminate this traffic, the United States Government recently purchased the entire Turkish official opium crop, pending the decision of Turkey to end the legal production of opium in 1972. The activities of the notorious Middle East Drug Rings have been curtailed by the vigilance of the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics, supported by responsible Middle East Governments. Unfortunately the lack of political unity among the Arab States, and the Arab-Israel problem have hindered effective co-operation.
The existence of these Drug Rings involving Mafia activities have kept open the channels along which the narcotics flow en route to the West (Map 1). Turkish opium finds its way by land through Syria into the Lebanon, where it may undergo partial processing to morphine in Beirut. The product is then shipped to Italy and France by way of Sicily where, in some instances the final stage of conversion to heroin may be completed. Firm action by the Syrian and Lebanese Governments to stop this through traffic is clearly essential if the situation is to be brought under control.
The flow of illicit narcotics to the affluent societies of the Western world follows two main streams. The European stream supplies North America and Europe through the Mediterranean ports of Marseilles (Map 1). The Asian stream supplies the United States and Japan through the focal port of Hong Kong (Map 2). Within the sphere of United Nations control the principal Asian producers of opium comprise India, Burma, Pakistan, Thailand and Laos. Of these States, India and Pakistan are full members of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Burma and Thailand, but not Laos, sent observers to the Geneva Meeting of the Commission in 1969. India is the leading producer of official opium among the Asian members of the United Nations. The Indian official production figures for 1969
The industrial labour force in Afghanistan amounts to no more than 25,000 people out of an estimated population of some 15 million. The corresponding figures for Iran are 29 million population with an industrial force of over one million. The gross national product of Iran has now reached a level of $355 per head.
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