The US Government’s Drug War has spurred many social and environmental consequences throughout the world. Widespread aerial herbicide spraying aimed at eradication has caused environmental damage from Central America to Central Asia. Recently, I learned you can add the sale of child brides in Afghanistan to the list of social ills caused by the Drug War.

A bumper crop of Afghan opium was produced in 2007, which is expected to be repeated in 2008. Despite these record poppy crops, farmers are deeply in debt. The average Afghan poppy grower’s per capita income is about $300, and farmers have to borrow money for seeds, fertilizer, food, and basic necessities from traffickers. The farmers are unable to pay their debts when their crops are eradicated, or they are pressured by local governments and westerners to stop growing. Westerners don’t keep promises to provide free seeds for substitute crops, and creditors demand child wives in payment for debts. The growers’ daughters are called “opium flowers“, and moneylenders seek them out in case of crop failure or family emergency.

It is a traditional Afghan custom for a family to pay off a debt by marrying a daughter to a relative of the creditor. Now the practice is being used to pay off debts to drug traffickers. Mr Isamuddin, 68, stopped growing poppies because of a government crack down; further up the valley helicopters sprayed the poppy fields with insecticide. He explained, “”If people here cannot earn enough to feed their families, they will start growing opium again.”

Even though production of Afghan opium is high, world demand has not increased largely. Afghanistan is accused of stockpiling opium, and the US supports aerial spraying programs for eradication. Afghan and British officials oppose aerial spraying, as it would increase support for the Taliban for fear the herbicide would poison growers and their families. The Bush administration supports expansion of eradication programs, whereas Afghanistan wants to emphasize long-term crop substitution for opium poppy plants.

One goal of the drug war is increase prices in order to deter usage, only the ones profiting from such prohibition are the drug traffickers. The farmers have tried other crops, such as wheat, but poppies bring in 10 times the amount and are hardier than grains. It is the only reliable cash crop they know. Opium growers ask for advances on their crops from the drug traffickers, which they are then unable to pay. Sayed Shah was forced to pay his debt to a trafficker with the marriage of his 9-year-old daughter. According to Newsweek:

Shah borrowed $2,000 from a local trafficker, promising to repay the loan with 24 kilos of opium at harvest time. Late last spring, just before harvest, a government crop-eradication team appeared at the family’s little plot of land in Laghman province and destroyed Shah’s entire two and a half acres of poppies… “I never imagined I’d have to pay for growing opium by giving up my daughter,” says Shah…”It’s my fate,” the child says.

Poppy eradication causes many Afghan daughters to be turned into child brides. Whether a farmer loses his crop to Drug War eradication or his substitute wheat crop fails, US policies should not be causing such practices to continue in Central Asia. “Until the end of my life I will feel shame because of what I did to my daughter,” said a former poppy grower. “I still can’t look her in the eye.”

Image: Afghan Hope Charity