White poppies in Contemporary War: Afghanistan and Aberdeen Hilary Homans, 11 th May 2014

1. White poppies in Contemporary War: Afghanistan and Aberdeen Hilary Homans, 11th May 2014 www.abdn.ac.uk/sustainable-international-development

2. http://www.lovelifelivenow.com/blog/community/white-poppy-for-peace/http://www.lovelifelivenow.com/blog/community/white-poppy-for-peace/

3. Overview • Development & connectedness • Drugs & dependency • War against…?

5. April 2003 Nurobod, Tajikistan

6. Source: http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/country/tajikistan.html Photo credit: Homans, 2003

7. Opium plantation in Afghanistan http://www.onepennysheet.com/tag/afghanistan/

8. Opium pod, powdered heroin, heroin block

9. Injecting drugs inside the ruined cultural palace, Kabul http://www.gettyimages.in/detail/news-photo/heroin-addicts-inject-while-keeping-warm-by-a-fire-inside-news-photo/84745683

10. Inside the morgue, Kabul – injecting drug user who had overdosed http://www.gettyimages.in/detail/nieuwsfoto's/fazel-rahman-a-heroin-addict-lays-in-a-city-morgue-after-nieuwsfotos/84745519

11. Bags of heroin – ready to export

12. Aberdeen 2010 How & why does the white stuff get here? Photo: OST programme King Street

14. 2001 Fall of the Taliban • Aid pledges made not fully met • Result – re-introduction of opium poppy plantations • Drug production in Afghanistan increased dramatically since the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban in 2001.

15. Opium cultivation in Afghanistan, 1994-2013 (Hectares) Source: UNODC (1994-2002), MCN/UNODC (since 2003). The high-low lines represent the upper and lower bounds of the 95% confidence interval. http://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/Afghan_report_Summary_Findings_2013.pdf

16. Source: UNODC (2013) World Drug Report 2013, UN, New York. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/secured/wdr/wdr2013/World_Drug_Report_2013.pdf

17. Britain – Afghanistan links 1st March 2011 David Cameron and Hamid Karzai held talks on Afghanistan's future

18. 2011 changes to Britain's aid programme • Funds cut to 16 countries • Angola, Bosnia i Herzegovina, Cambodia, Kosovo, Vietnam no more UK aid Increases to Afghanistan, Somalia, Zimbabwe

19. Investment in reconstruction: UK govt by year

20. Of rivers and drugs - Tajikistan/Afghanistan border Photo credit Panj river http://robbernrussiatochina.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/following-panj-river.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF5rKW3VN3I

21. Governance and crime • Drug trafficking linked with people trafficking and sex trafficking • Porous borders • Poor governance • Poor wages for security staff • Increasing inequalities and poverty

22. Youth • Youth unemployment about 20% for CEE/CIS...boredom • Adolescence ...experimentation

23. Displaced male youth in Georgia – bored and unemployed

24. Age of first injecting decreasing • In Kazakhstan, 54% of people who inject drugs under age 25. • Adolescent IDUs (< 19 years): St. Petersburg, Russia, almost 1/3 people injecting drugs, Ukraine, 20% & Armenia 13%. • Young people who inject drugs age at first injecting: • Albania the median age of first injection 16 years • Romania 76% & 67% started injecting before age 18 • Ukraine average age of first injection 14.4 years • Serbia 20% of all people who inject drugs started injecting before age 18

25. People who inject drugs Population size estimates UNAIDS World AIDS Report 2013 http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/epidemiology/2013/gr2013/UNAIDS_Global_Report_2013_en.pdf

26. % of people who inject drugs per head of population UNAIDS: 2010

27. Injecting drugs & problem drug use in Aberdeen • Aberdeen city has the second highest rate of injecting drug use in Scotland • 27 drug-related deaths were recorded in Aberdeen city in 2008 – cause of most deaths were heroin/morphine, benzodiazepine and alcohol • Sources: Health Protection Scotland, 2009/10 http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Drugs-and-Alcohol-Misuse/Publications/2013-06-25/2013-06-25-Injecting-Equipment-Provision-2011-12-Report.pdf

28. Russian Federation • At least 30,000 people die in Russia every year from heroin, 90% of it smuggled in from Afghanistan. • Russia and the European Union have developed a 5 year plan to tackle the Afghan drug trade. • Ivanov argues for criminalisation and poppy-crop eradication. Viktor Ivanov Director of Russia's Federal Service for the Control of Narcotics 21/02/2011

29. The Intervention: Programme targeting pre-injectors to reduce transition to heroin use / injecting The Problem: Injecting heroin driving the HIV epidemic

30. HIV • HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs remains high. • HIV prevention coverage for people who inject drugs remains low. • Among 35 countries providing data in 2013, all but four reached less than 10% of opiate users with substitution therapy. • UNAIDS World AIDS Report 2013 http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/epidemiology/2013/gr2013/UNAIDS_Global_Report_2013_en.pdf

31. % of people who inject drugs who are living with HIV UNAIDS World AIDS Report 2013 http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/epidemiology/2013/gr2013/UNAIDS_Global_Report_2013_en.pdf

32. % of people in Scotland who inject drugs who share drug injection equipment 2002 to 2011 Source: Scottish Drug Misuse Database 2002 to 2011

33. Not only HIV... • Hepatitis B and C • Drug dependency in children • Linkages between sexual and injecting drug transmission • Problems with rehabilitation and lack of integrated services

34. Conclusion • Lack of support for international development has devastating consequences not only for the country concerned, but for a wide range of other countries and cities close to home. • Failure to meet Millennium Development Goal 6 to reduce HIV infection

35. Conclusion • Need to invest in economic, social and environmental development i.e. sustainable international development • War against terrorism, poppies, drugs?

36. Protecting people or poppies? http://themellowjihadi.com/

37. White Poppies for Peace White Poppies for Peace first appeared in 1933 on Armistice Day, ‘presenting an alternative view of security and how to achieve it without violence’. http://hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/hot-topics/campaigns/peace-poppies-in-the-peace-garden