Seventy billion dollars are said to be made out of drug trafficking. Afghanistan has been struggling to develop and built its economy. But it still remains a mafia and drug-based economy. This benefits ordinary Afghans very little. Now the Ministry of Counternarcotic has said that the profit made out of drug trafficking amounts 70 billion dollars per year.
Most of the profits go to pockets of international mafia. In the meanwhile, drug production and trafficking continue to fund the Taliban and other insurgent groups that attempt to derail democratic processes and take over Afghanistan.
According to the Ministry of Counternarcotic only 5% of the money earned through poppy cultivation and drug trafficking go to Afghan farmers and traffickers. Unfortunately, there has been a regression in fighting poppy and opium cultivation just like in other areas such as security situation. The bitter fact is that president Karzai's government has not been able to perform well in any areas.
The number of drug-addicted people continues to grow in the country. The deputy minister of counternarcotic has stated that it has now become a national issue and problem. Unfortunately, president Karzai has never shown any vigorous will to address these problems.
What he cares most is to wrestle with international community and to appease a militant group that attaches no value to a life of a human that opposes their ideology and way of life. While he must know that if his government begins to address poppy cultivation and provide alternatives for the poor Afghan farmers, the Taliban will not be able to run their terrorist operations financially; and he must also understand that if his government starts generating jobs and employment opportunities for Afghan youth, it will be able to address the issue of drug-addiction to a great extent and also the Taliban will not be able to recruit the frustrated Afghan youth in return of some insignificant amount of money.
He has always seen strategies for addressing these big national issues from the perspective of his own personal interests. If he views a strategy for eliminating poppy cultivation as harming his interests he would diametrically oppose it. For example, a strict policy to fight corruption could hurt his corrupt network, so he has been deceiving both Afghan people and international donors just by rhetoric.