What Putin said was not without merit at all, because it is a fact that ever since America took over Afghanistan, that drug production has skyrocketed to record levels. The Taliban, for all the bad they did, was extraordinarily successful at essentially wiping out opium production in Afghanistan. Heroin dealers had to move their productions to South America and other parts of the world so that they could get enough opium to make the heroin they desired because Afghanistan was no longer happening for that. This has changed dramatically these last three years. Opium production is up in Afghanistan, way up. Farmers are producing record harvests of the stuff, because the dealers are forcing them to. They are telling the farmers fuck growing food, you grow opium instead or else. They pay the farmers a pittance for their crops, and then take the opium and refine it into heroin and make obscene amounts of money with it. That has meant that there is a flood of heroin in many countries of the world, including Russia. That's what has Putin pissed off, because Russian junkies are having a field day getting fucked up out of their minds all the time and overdosing and dying and shit too. And it is not just Russia that is experiencing problems too, other lands are having their own problems with the junkies and dealers and such like never before. For by everyone's estimations, the opium crop is at an all time record level, and that means that heroin will be as cheap as candy bars in many places, and that is not god news for society as a whole. Putin wants to know why America has allowed this to happen, since America is the leader in that anti drug shit all over the planet, they claim to be so against drugs and all that they stand for, so why are they letting this go on? After all, America has not relented on its drug war one bit, The White House has vowed that this will not happen ever, as America is morally opposed to drugs. However, they are knowingly letting all that opium be grown in Afghanistan and all that heroin that comes from it be refined and don't seem to be all that concerned about it. This is not in keeping with the public stance of "zero tolerance" on drugs that America has made famous these last two decades or so. If that was serious, there would be no way that opium production would be so dramatically in Afghanistan, because America would have been handed a scene where the stuff was practically wiped out, all the hard work has been done eradicating it, and all that Washington would have had to do was to stay the course and keep the stuff gone. That would have been ridiculously easy, Actually easier than letting opium production go back through the roof again because that took far more planning then continuing what the Taliban started with this issue. So, Mr. Putin has a point, America has done zero in terms of making any real efforts to stop opium production in Afghanistan.
Washington won't say it, but they have their reasons for doing this. The biggest one is political. Afghanistan has been a lawless country for millennia now, there has not been any central government there in quite a long time, so you cannot deal with established politicians and political systems like you do in the West, they do not exist in Afghanistan. There are no dudes that you can go to and cut the necessary political deals to get things done over there, that is what America is trying to establish there, but if they ever can, it will be a long time before they do. So, they have no choice but to cut deals with unsavory characters that they would rather not deal with. Since opium is the main crop Over there and the main source of income for the entire society, the dealers are very powerful dudes in that part of the world and essentially run things, they are about as close to an actual government as you get. Since they have all the money, they run shit. America knows that, and realized that they had to deal with these guys whether they wanted to or not. Besides, these cats have lots of money, more than a lot of legitimate countries do, and America wanted to get their hands on some of that cash to help defray war costs. So they realized that if they wanted to do this, that they would have to look the other way on the opium production and the heroin dealing and shit. Washington cut a deal with these fuckers where they had to give America a portion of their proceeds in order to be ignored, and the dealers gladly agreed, since they are used to that, as that is they way they do business usually. Besides, the dealers have an awful lot of enemies, usually one another, and they all wanted to have America and its military might on their side in case of hostilities. They also have these delusional dreams of actually becoming a legitimate government and actually running things legally, and they thought that partnering with America would help them do that, so they were very amenable to what Washington had to say. They were also ecstatic about being able to ply their trade openly again, they are hell-bent to flood the world with as much cheap heroin as they possibly can, because that makes them even more money, and they saw this unofficial partnership with America as the way for them to do that like never before, and the fuckers have taken the ball and ran and ran with it on this one. They are making money hand over fist and are richer than ever before. They are closer than ever to actually being recognized as a legit government, and they have many more angles to play in their never ending battles with their enemies now, so things could not be better for the dealers in Afghanistan right now. Even though their partnership with America is a sham one, because every single one of them will double-cross Washington any chance they get, and they all are actively looking for that chance, this unholy alliance, this partnership is the single greatest thing to happen for their business ever since heroin was synthisized. America knows this, and they have to allow it to try and get things their way in Afghanistan, so they swallow hard and look the other way and make all their sanctimonious anti drug speechmaking look as hypocritical and unreal as it actually is. Washington seems to feel that this is the lesser of two evils and that in the long run that it will benefit America and its agenda by making Afghanistan a habitable place for the first time in many years. Whether or not that will happen in very unclear, but America is going to pursue this policy because there is essentially nothing else that they can do, so they are trying to make the best of it, and this is one way that they do, by sapping some of the dealer's money and using it to help offset the costs of the war and occupation of Afghanistan. That is one reason why they are allowing this, but even though it is the most obvious one, it is not the only one, there is another reason that they are allowing this as well, and that one has to do with domestic policy instead of international policy.
Washington realized that if they were to turn a blind eye to increased opium production in Afghanistan, that they would be throwing the door open to a wave of heroin use and availability such as never seen before. They knew that eventually this wave would hit America, that they were not immune from it, not by a long shot. That has not happened quite yet, as the Afghani heroin is going to places like Mr. Putin's Russia and other European/Asian countries right now, most of the heroin in America comes from Central/South America these days, from the dealers that were driven out of Afghanistan by the Taliban ,and the new Afghani shit has not really hit America yet. The ripple effect is being felt here however, as the South American dealers have had to cut prices and increase production themselves to keep up with the Afghanistan scene, so America has seen an upturn in heroin themselves, although not as much a one as Europe and Asia have. However, it is just a matter of time before the USA is flooded with as much, if not more, cheap and pure heroin than anywhere else in the world, and Washington is ready for that. What they've done is to take a close look at all those statistics that they have compiled about drugs and drug users and see that these people are not exactly the most loyal of Americans in their eyes, that they are the kind of people that would most like to have things changed over Washington way. There are so many reformers and harm reduction advocates in the drug scene that Washington gets nervous. They know that this current administration has not been kind to drug users or dealers and that people that are into that would not support them unequivocally. That can translate into opposition to Washington, and in November, votes against the President, and nothing scares Washington quite like those two things. So they have come up with a unique counteroffensive for this. If America turns a blind eye to the drug scene in Afghanistan and elsewhere, that translates to more drugs on America's streets and that in turn translates into more people using these drugs than ever before. That gives Washington the perfect excuse to go after these people and arrest them in record numbers like always, taking them and their opposition to the White House off the street. They get to fill the already overcrowded prisons of America with people that would not vote for the Administration nor support its war efforts. Once these people are safely behind bars, their rights become non- Existent. They cannot vote, so the threat of them voting out Bush become nil. They can be activists all they want in prison, because no one is going to know about it except other prisoners, the average public will never hear from these people, and that is what Washington wants. If America is flooded with heroin, they have the chance to lock a lot of people up for a very long time, and that thrills Washington because the prison industry is one of the leading industries in America, and they are always looking to improve upon that. Locking heroin users and dealers up is going to make Washington a lot of money over the years, another source of income that can be used to try and offset all the costs of war and shit. This income will last a lot of years too, possibly longer than the war itself, as America is locking its people up for longer and longer times. Getting people that are not what washington deems proper Americans has been a top priority for the Government ever since Nixon was President, and it sure is not about to stop now. That has always been the benefit from the War On Drugs that America has been after lo these many years, and they see an opportunity to crank that up a few more notches and make even more riches for themselves from it. That is the domestic reason for America's doing nothing to stop opium production in Afghanistan. As Always, washington has a myriad of reasons for doing what they do, and none of them ever benefit anyone except Washington. Mr. Putin knows this as well as anyone, after all, he used to be a KGB agent, so his complaints are mostly for publicity, to make him look like a tough guy on this issue. America will continue to manipulate this and every other issue in this war to its own selfish, short-sighted benefit without any concern about what it might do to others. That is the attitude that started all this insane war shit in the first place, and it is the attitude that will continue to perpetuate it for as long as it can be perpetuated. America is not doing much about opium in Afghanistan because they believe that they get more out of it by this tactic, and that's all that they care about, which makes them every bit as shallow and selfish and greedy as the heroin dealers themselves.