As most of us probably know, the Afghanistan opium crop was alive and well before Sept 11, 2001.
Forgive this very naive question, but I do believe we have had a US military presence in Afghanistan since late 2001. How is this opium growing continuing (and as it seems increasing) unchecked? Even if the growing of opium cannot be prevented what about the opium trade?
What makes you think that ‘Having a military presence’ has any real effect on the day to day life of the average peasant. The situation as I understand it is that the UN forces are completely tied down trying to maintain every day normality without getting involved in a war with local warlords who control the drugs traffic.
Military Might does not equal control.
Something that some of us were trying to get over prior to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. 
They are not ‘allowed’ to grow it, they just do, and because it is a profitable crop, there is immense scope for corruption. It also finances War Lords and the Taliban.
Someone once suggested allowing them to grow all they want and buying it up and destroying it.
Initially I thought it was a daft idea, but now I am not so sure, raw opium is pretty inexpensive at source.
But you’d have to buy it at well above the market value in order to shut out all the other people who want to buy it. Which means even more money for the warlords and the Taliban.
I’m sure that the military there could wipe it out tomorrow if it wanted to. But the other problem is, if you shut down the only cash crop they have, what do you replace it with? So much of the economy is propped up by it that it would cause untold poverty if it were destroyed immediately (despite it causing untold crime and horror in the destination export market).
I’m not sure about that.
One could buy it at market value, the real producers would see a lot more of the revenue.
Currently, I suspect, the War Lords and Taliban ‘buy’ it from the peasants who really grow it.
If one short circuited that element, one could find the War Lords and the Taliban being regarded as surplus to requirements for the peasants.
Initially I thought the idea crazy, but the more I think about it, the more I reckon it is worth trying. It will to naff all to the supply on the street, but it could create a rift between the real inhabitants of Afghanistan and those who are charging them for protection.
Don’t some of them grow it for medical usage, to make morphine? Are none of the opium crops used for legitimate medical production? 
Crop dusters are vulnerable to ground fire.
A long time ago a friend of mine was an occasional user of intraveneous Heroin, and he had old friends, a couple, who were ‘officially’ addicts.
All three of them were very functional.
Personally I consider hard drugs very stupid, but I’m not convinced that prohibition helps - I strongly suspect that it makes the problem worse.
I’m not too sure about that. Controlling Coca growing in South America has not been a great success.
I have to confess I’m slightly puzzled by your train of thought. Just because the US army is involved with a country it doesn’t mean that US laws apply to that country. Was that what you were getting at or have i read it wrong?
Given that opium was grown under Taliban rule there’s no reason to stop it now. Yes, it causes problems with USA citizens getting the end product but I’m sure there are lots of things the USA does which cause problems with Afghani citizens.
I thought that under Taliban rule (pre-Sept 11th) Opium production had reached record lows. Lows because of harsh Taliban punishment for those caught growing opium. Am I wrong in my memories here, or did the Taliban outlaw the production of opium when they were in control?
Actually, in the two years prior to this, the Taliban had introduced a ban on poppy cultivation, and decreased opium production as a result.
Your memory serves you well:
The Taliban did indeed instruct farmers not to grow it in later years. But up until then it was commonly grown. So now that the Taliban have been attacked by the Western forces and deposed why not go back to growing it? It would make sense to grow it - this is a relatively poor country in turmoil, opium generates a LOT of income, it’s no longer controlled by the Taliban and the USA have no right to impose laws on Afghanistan. I’d certainly be growing it!
I’ll bet that the American presence in Afghanistan is nowhere near as extensive as the American presence in America. And yet there are still illegal drugs produced domestically. If we can’t get rid of the meth labs and marijuana gardens here at home, what makes you think we’d be able to do the equivalent overseas?
Meth labs occupy tiny footprints and are easily concealed. Marijuana gardens are extremely localized and often intermixed with other vegetation. Poppy fields occupy far larger contiguous acreages and thus easily seen by surveillance aircraft.
My guess is the Bush administration is trying to curry favor with the local power elite. Frankly, I wouldn’t read too much logic into the administration’s Middle East policies.
I’m sure they could not. Afghanistan isn’t under control, nor by western forces, nor by the Afghan government.