Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has raised his concerns over the increase of in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and said that it will inevitably lead to an increased amount of heroin reaching Ireland.<\/p>\n
Crowe raised the issue during Parliamentary Questions to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade in the D\u00e1il today and called on the Ireland and the EU to do more to stop the cultivation and the transportation of this drug.<\/p>\n
Deputy Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cPoppy cultivation in\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0rose to a new high of more than 200,000\u00a0hectares in 2013, a 36% increase over last year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the size of approximately 283 Phoenix Park\u2019s and the UN estimates that total opium production reached roughly 5,500 tons.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is now believed that 75% of world\u2019s heroin is produced in Afghanistan and we know that one of the key target markets for this drug will be Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past 3 decades in Dublin we have all seen the devastating impact that cheap and widely available heroin can do to communities and individuals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have stood over too many graves and attended too many funerals not to be concerned about this new development.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important that we stop this drug at its source before it even gets here, and that means EU countries working with the Afghan government, as well as the governments of Iran and Pakistan, whose territories are be used to as supply lines to transport this opiate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Crowe continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cAfghanistan is one of the most impoverished countries in the world so it is vital that the focus is not just entirely put on stopping poppy cultivation and farmers growing the crop, but also on developing socio-economic programmes, with realistic and sustainable substitutes for the poppy introduced.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as we think we can have short-term, fast solutions to this huge problem, we are doomed to continue to fail, but Ireland and the EU must act with urgency now.<\/p>\n
\u201cInaction from success Irish Governments and their inability to deal with heroin availability destroyed the potential of thousands of young people in Dublin and across this State.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis new threat needs a collective response and immediate action to stop this drug arriving on our shores and into our communities.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has raised his concerns over the increase of in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and said that it will inevitably lead to an increased amount of heroin reaching Ireland. Crowe raised the issue during Parliamentary Questions to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade in the D\u00e1il […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1613,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610\/revisions\/1613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}