Afghan heroin to U.S. via Canada increasing

The Obama administration has raised the alarm about an increase in the amount of heroin being smuggled from Afghanistan through Canada and into the United States.

The warning is contained in a recent White House report on the global drug trade, and comes despite a concerted push — at a cost of millions of dollars — to curb Afghan heroin production during the years Canadian military forces were in Kandahar.

Each year, U.S. President Barack Obama issues a “presidential determination” that guides U.S. drug policy for the coming year. The report includes a list of countries deemed to be major producers or traffickers of illicit drugs, as well as other points of concern.

This year’s declaration notes the amount of opium — which heroin is made from — being produced in Afghanistan has reached record levels.

It says the U.S. is lobbying Canada as well as European countries for more assistance in tackling the problem.

“There is also an increase in transshipments of Afghanistan heroin going to Canada,” the document adds, “a development of concern that is being addressed by Canada with support from the United States.”

Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne could not say how much Afghan heroin is being smuggled into the U.S. through Canada, though the amount pales in comparison to the heroin flowing into the U.S. from Central America and Mexico.

Canada spent tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars trying to convince Afghans to switch from growing opium poppies to other crops while the Canadian military was operating in Kandahar from 2005 to 2011.

The Canadian money was used to fund public relations campaigns, support the Afghan government’s poppy eradication efforts, and to refurbish a major irrigation dam so farmers would have the water needed to grow something other than opium. The dam cost $50 million.

Those efforts appear to have paid off, at least temporarily.

Opium poppy production dropped from a record high in 2007 of 193,000 hectares to 123,000 hectares in 2009 and 2010.

But the United Nations reported earlier this year that the amount of land dedicated to growing opium poppies in Afghanistan had increased to a record 209,000 hectares in 2013 after three consecutive years of growth.

That number had risen to 224,000 hectares in 2014.