maqsad

I doubt the afghans control the lucrative end of the opium trade. I don't have the stats but I think the opium crop itself is just perhaps 2 or 3 times more valuable to the farmers than regular wheat or corn or anything like that. The real markup begins from the point of arrival in an industrialized country right down the distribution chain to the consumers. The afghans might make a few hundred million themselves but it couldn't be more than a billion a year max...if that even. All depends on the figures I guess. So maybe 10% of the economy at this point is funnelled by opium profits.

S-2

Afghanistan Opium Survey- Executive Summary 2007

I'm a tad frustrated as I found the full report a couple of days ago and now can't. The UNODC link to the full report and other links take you here-the executive summary.

In any case, maqsad, total dollars captured by farmers, chemists, and traffickers approaches $2.8 bil. About $750 mil is held by farmers so the bulk would seem held by the traffickers and chemists, of which most probably lies in the hands of the traffickers.

My guess is that there's a very symbiotic relationship between the traffickers and the regional power-brokers/war-drug lords. Excluding farmers leaves about $2.0 bil (about 7% of the GDP, IIRC) concentrated near power-centers. Again, that's a lot of captal held within the country. Some sent overseas, no doubt. The rest-purchasing protection and grease for the economy on very favorable terms to the lender?

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