Matthew C. DuPée on the spread of the methamphetamine trade in south west Asia.
As the 21st century unfolds, Afghanistan finds itself in a profound socio-economic crisis. It is one in which the illegal drug trade and insurgency plays a very complex and important role. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the global dynamics of the illicit opiates market “are not well understood” – and the same can be said of south west Asia’s transforming narcotics industry. All the attention given to Afghanistan’s poppy problem obscures the rapidly growing distribution, trade and