Drugs and Narcotics

DRUGS AND NARCOTICS

Drugs have long played a prominent role in the affairs of the Middle East.

The Middle East is ideally suited to profit from all phases of the drug trade. Climate, geography, and, more recently, politics have combined to make the region an important source and transit point of drugs destined for Europe, the United States, and many of the countries of the Middle East itself. Traditionally, the most important drugs in the Middle East have been opium and marijuana, which provide the raw material for the heroin and hashish that form the staple of the illicit drug trade in the region. Both the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) and marijuana (Cannabis sativa) grow easily in many parts of the Middle East and North Africa, and the centuries-old trade routes that crisscross the region give illicit drug producers ready access to the major international drug markets. Although the drug trade is driven largely by the profits inherent in any lucrative criminal activity, in the Middle East it has taken on an important political dimension as rival groups have used enormous drug revenues to pay for the arms necessary to pursue their political ambitions. With a metric ton of heroin worth between $100 million and $600 million, retail, on the streets of the United States, drug sales are an appealing source of immediate, vast revenues for clandestine or criminal activities.

The importance of the Middle East in the international drug trade has varied according to the demand for certain illicit drugs. The taste for drugs is cyclical, alternating between periods of demand for stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamines, and times when the drug-abusing public seeks depressants such as opiates (e.g., morphine, heroin, and other opium derivatives) and hashish. Because the Middle East primarily produces depressants, its importance as a drug source increases when opiates are in demand, as in the 1930s, 1970s, and 1990s.

Opiates

Because Papaver somniferum grows best at higher altitudes, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, and more recently Lebanon, have at different times been major sources of heroin and other opiates. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Turkey gained international notoriety as the principal source of the heroin that fed an epidemic of drug abuse in the United States and Europe. In 1973, as part of an agreement with the United States, Turkey first banned, then allowed only very restricted cultivation of opium poppies for medicinal purposes. This is still the only successful drug crop-control program of its kind, with virtually no leakage into illicit channels.

With Turkey effectively eliminated as a source in the mid-1970s, the center of illicit opiate production shifted eastward to Afghanistan, Lebanon, and, to a lesser extent, Iran. In both Afghanistan and Lebanon, the chaos created by civil war, coupled with the absence of a strong central government and rival combatants' desire for a source of revenue for arms purchases, led to an explosion of opium cultivation. By 1992, Afghanistan had become second only to Myanmar (Burma) in the production of illicit opium. The U.S. government estimated that at the end of 1992, Afghanistan had over 48,000 acres (nearly 19,500 ha) of opium poppy under cultivation, capable of producing 705 tons (640 metric tons) of opium or 70 tons (64 metric tons) of heroin. This would be enough to satisfy estimated heroin needs in the United States six times over and to pump between $6.4 billion and $38.4 billion into the underworld economy. While a large percentage of these opiates is probably consumed by addicts in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, the remainder flows into the international drug trade through Iran for transshipment to heroin refineries in Turkey and Lebanon. There is also evidence that Afghan opium is flowing northward into new routes opened in central Asia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Although not an opium producer on the scale of Afghanistan, Lebanon is an important country in the international heroin trade. Following Syria's occupation of the Biqa valley in 1976, eastern Lebanon became a center of opium cultivation and heroin refining. The Lebanese government has blamed the Syrian military for the Biqa valley drug trade, which in 1991 had the capacity to produce an estimated 37 tons (34 metric tons) of opium (or 3.7 tons [3.4 metric tons] of heroin) from an estimated nearly 8,400 acres (3,400 ha). Subsequently, a combination of harsh weather and joint Syrian–Lebanese eradication efforts have reduced cultivation to an estimated nearly 1,100 acres (440 ha) in late 1993, though clandestine laboratories may be refining more than 5.5 tons (5 metric tons) a year of heroin from Afghan opium.

Despite Iranian government efforts to ban the opium poppy in 1980, Iran in 1992 was still an important potential source of opium. The U.S. government estimated that nearly 8,650 acres (3,500 ha) of Papaver somniferum were under cultivation at the end of the year. There are indications, however, that Iran's addicts consume most domestic opium production. Iran continues to be a conduit for Afghan and Pakistani opiates moving to Turkey and onward along the Balkan route into Europe.

Hashish

Although there is cannabis cultivation in nearly every country of the Middle East, only Morocco and Lebanon are significant hashish producers and exporters. Hashish is simple to manufacture, requiring little of the intensive labor and none of the chemicals needed to refine opiates. And while it does not generate profits on the same scale as opiates, hashish production is a multimillion-dollar criminal enterprise. In 1992, Morocco's nearly 74,000 acres (30,000 ha) of cannabis potentially yielded nearly 9,918 tons (9,000 metric tons) of hashish, most of which was destined for Europe. Lebanon, with an estimated nearly 38,800 acres (15,700 ha) of cannabis under cultivation in 1993, potentially had 623 tons (565 metric tons) of hashish available for export. Cannabis may be sold and used legally in many countries so most governments accord cannabis control a relatively low priority. The hashish trade is likely to remain steady therefore, even as the governments of the Middle East intensify efforts to suppress illicit opiates and stimulants.

See also Biqa Valley; Climate; Geography.

Bibliography

Ehrenfeld, Rachel. Narco-Terrorism. New York: Basic Books, 1990.

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Poppy Politics. Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975.

U.S. Department of Justice. Drug Enforcement Administration. Illegal Drug Price/Purity Report: January 1989–December 1992. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993.

U.S. Department of Justice. Drug Enforcement Administration. Illicit Drug Trafficking and Use in the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993.

U.S. Department of Justice. Drug Enforcement Administration. The NNICC Report 1992: The Supply of Illicit Drugs to the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993.

U.S. Department of State. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, April 1993. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993.

w. kenneth thompson