Opium Brides of Afghanistan

Here is an old story. I actually found it in June before my blogging hiatus. Opium Brides of Afghanistan tells about the hard times that have befallen poppy growers in Afghanistan. Since the government/military crackdown on drug trafficking, these poor souls have had to sell their daughters to pay their debts to drug lords! As appalling as that fact is in and of itself, what I found more disturbing was the tone of the article which was way too dismissive of the practice and almost tries to justify farmers growing poppies as a way of life. Must be the liberal drug culture pushing it's agenda. I mean I personally believe that growing poppies for drugs is despicable. And having to sell your daughter because some drug lord fronted you the money for your cash crop and the government came and burned your plants; well that is beyond disgusting.

The reporter tries to garner sympathy for the father but a man who would sell his daughter is no father. People who default to drug traffickers often wind up dead. And yet that has not stemmed the tide of farmers after the easy money, little though it is.

An estimated 500,000 Afghan families support themselves by raising poppies, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Last year those growers received an estimated $1 billion for their crops—about $2,000 per household.

The man in the article is selling his 9 year old daughter to a 45 year old man because he owed $2000. Oh he tried to flee but was caught and forced by tribal elders to give his little girl away.

The article goes on to say that promoting the farming of other goods has failed.

Wheat or corn brings $250 an acre at best, while poppy growers can expect 10 times that much. Besides, poppies are more dependable: hardier than either wheat or corn and more tolerant of drought and extreme heat and cold. And in a country with practically no government-funded credit for small farmers, opium growers can easily get advances on their crops.

So what we have here is a situation where a man trying to make $2000 growing poppies has his crops destroyed and is forced to turn over his 9 year old baby girl to some lecherous 45 year old drug lord and it is all legitimized by Islamic law. My sympathy lies only with the little girl who will have her life destroyed because her father didn't think raising wheat would support his ten kids but facilitating the making of opium and heroin to ruin other lives would.

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