Narrated by Colin Friels and produced by Chris Hilton, Afghanistan: Drugs, Guns and Money asks these difficult questions by following the journey of this years opium crops, tracing the drug trafficking routes heading north from Afghanistan through the nations of the Old Silk Road on its way to Europe.
The film examines who are the winners and losers as the crop finds its way to market. The awesome beauty of the landscape provides a powerful backdrop for the treachery uncovered each step of the way.
Like a cancer, the heroin trade has spread its tentacles through almost every level of society. In Afghanistan there is mass local addiction, local HIV epidemics, an unending cycle of violence and crime, and the corruption of state institutions.
With the war on terror raging, the war on drugs has slipped down the priority list of the current US administration. But, in the crucial frontline states of Central Asia, these two wars are inextricably linked… a fact all too often ignored.
The business is booming. Afghanistan and its near neighbors still supply around 80 per cent of the heroin sold in Western Europe. Yesterday’s drug lords are today’s cabinet ministers. How much of a problem is it for America (and the West) that many of its newest allies are implicated in one of the most lucrative drug routes in the world?
Does this documentary mention that US troops are securing the drug trade in Afghanistan, as well as helping with the logistics? In January 2001 the Taliban had almost totally stopped the opium production, because the CIA is the biggest customer, and the Taliban was a bit sour about the fact that the US stopped giving them money though their middle man Osama Bin Laden. Today the opium production is at an never before high, and under protection of US troops… as much as I like Americas, the US government and its institutions are the cancer of this world.
To jay… I am an American & I have to totally agree with you. Some extremely evil criminals have taken over our govt. here & in many, if not most, other parts of the world. I have been thoroughly disgusted by this. All I would like to say is that these evil people are a small, but growing, percentage of the people… & there are a lot of nameless & faceless multinationals doing these wicked deeds. Basically, Americans are good “live & let Live” people that feel we have been betrayed.
Totally Agree…………Andre Bordeleau
can you really blame them, look at what they has gone on for so many years by so many foreign national who come and invade,create wars or simply turn a blind eye to a very very profitable trade. nothing really new,just sad we do not learn and help.