Fears cheap heroin will spark epidemic

BUMPER opium crops in Afghanistan will result in a glut of cheap heroin and could trigger another epidemic in Ireland, drug experts warned yesterday.

The comments follow a United Nations report which showed that cultivation of opium used to manufacture heroin jumped by 64% in 2004.

"Virtually all our heroin comes from Afghanistan. As it is, there seems to be plenty of heroin around. With this huge increase in opium crops there will be more heroin in Ireland, and cheaper heroin," said one garda source.

Dr Des Corrigan, chairman of the State-appointed National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD), also expressed concern.

"People might think when they hear about the elections in Afghanistan 'that's got nothing to do with us', but if the Afghan government doesn't succeed in extending its control outside the Kabul area, it's going to be young people in inner city estates in Dublin that will pay the price of that failure, because that heroin will come through and it will be cheaper. It has the potential to trigger off another epidemic."

The Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004, published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said 131,000 hectares were dedicated to opium farming, compared to 80,000 hectares in 2003.

"Opium production has spread to all of Afghanistan's 32 provinces, making narcotics the main engine of economic growth: valued at $32 billion," said UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa. "The opium economy is now equivalent to over 60% of Afghanistan's 2003 GDP."

He said Afghanistan accounted for 87% of the world's opium production.

Tony Geoghegan of Merchants Quay Ireland, the country's largest voluntary drug treatment group, said the way to undermine supply and cut demand was to provide treatment.

"There are still waiting lists of over a year in parts of Dublin," he said.

A spokeswoman for Noel Ahern, the Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, shared the concern.

"The Government and the Minister for the Drugs Strategy would be concerned at the big increase in opiate production in Afghanistan, given that Irish supplies of heroin are routed from there.

"Heroin misuse in Ireland in recent years, certainly in Dublin, would be seen to have stabilised, but would be increasing in the regions ...," she said.