The Opium Standard

Jesse Walker | August 4, 2009

Next stop in our occasional series on commodities used as currencies around the world: Afghanistan! If you thought Robert Anton Wilson was being excessively satiric when he invented the idea of hempscrip, read this report from the Associated Press:

For as long as anyone can remember, there was no need for paper money in this remote corner of the Hindu Kush. The common currency was what grew in everyone's backyard -- opium.

When children felt like buying candy, they ran into their father's fields and returned with a few grams of opium folded inside a leaf. Their mothers collected it in plastic bags, trading 18 grams for a meter of fabric or two liters of cooking oil. Even a visit to the barbershop could be settled in opium.

Such Norman Rockwell scenes are rare today. The AP informs us that "the economy of this village sputtered to a halt last year when the government began aggressively enforcing a ban on opium production. Villagers were not allowed to plant their only cash crop. Now shops are empty and farmers are in debt, as entire communities spiral into poverty." For the first time in my life, I'm associating prohibition with deflation.

(Drug currencies aren't actually unusual. An earlier entry in this series told the tale of a Colombian community where the currency is cocaine. Parts of colonial America used tobacco as money, and more recently prisoners have traded cigarettes when coins are scarce. And one reason the whiskey tax of the 1790s provoked a famous rebellion was because back-country farmers had been using spirits as a medium of exchange.)

Comments

|8.5.09 @ 12:01AM|#

It continues to amaze me how many non-US citizen lives our state and federal governments are willing to sacrifice to deal with our puritanical war on some drugs in response to our drug consumption. It is equally amazing to my why other peoples don't say "fuck you, your drug addicts are your problem, not ours" and grow their poppies anyway.

Mike in PA|8.5.09 @ 12:07AM|#

But wait... You have to stop opium production so terrorists lose money. Of course, that means the West ruins an entire economy, which increases their hatred for us, which creates more terrorists, which means we'll have to work even harder to limit their funds!

And who's got the addiction problem?

Space Fiend|8.5.09 @ 1:17AM|#

If these communities have so little contact with the larger region they don't even have a need for paper money, I don't know why we or Karzai would ever bother trying to control them. Using a "country" argument in a region so isolated it doesn't even bother with the country's coinage is obviously doomed to total failure.

William|8.5.09 @ 1:27AM|#

Norman Rockwell scenes?? Children buying candy with opium?

Hacha Cha|8.5.09 @ 2:50AM|#

after the commie revolution in Russia in 1919, Tajikistan's currency was backed not by gold but by opium. another interesting fact is that Fort Knox stored opium and morphine in case of a crisis. because they feared the opium stock would rot they extracted the alkaloids and stockpiled them.
I would have more trust in a currency if it was backed by opium.

Art-P.O.G.|8.5.09 @ 3:02AM|#

Norman Rockwell scenes?? Children buying candy with opium?

I remember that series, actually. It was when Rockwell started illustrating William S. Burroughs stories.

But seriously, I agree with the first three commenters.

BakedPenguin|8.5.09 @ 7:25AM|#

I would have more trust in a currency if it was backed by opium.

Hacha Cha, given the efficiency of the DEA, the opium currency would fall in value, too. But you're right - nowhere near as fast as the greenback is going to.

William / Edweirdo / Leftitty, when the Captain takes his rightful place at the head of the leader of the people's republic, he shall banish irony, sarcasm, metaphors, similes, and all other non-literal and anti-party communication styles that so confuse you. He shall also banish market fundamentalism and re-educate all those who support it!

Some juan|8.5.09 @ 8:20AM|#

Legalizing opium would have crashed their little economy just as well.

Cabeza de Vaca|8.5.09 @ 8:23AM|#

That is a beautiful picture.

Art-P.O.G.|8.5.09 @ 8:28AM|#

BakedPenguin,

Heh heh, do your instincts also tell you that Jong-Un thinks Hong Kong, Japan and the US are neat-o?

Xeones|8.5.09 @ 8:34AM|#

Fuck governments, yo.

The Joint (there's a misnomer!) Chiefs apparently issued a statement emphasizing their need for more civilian cooperation in Afghanistan. I heard about it on the radio and was all like QUIT DESTROYING THEIR LIVELIHOODS IN THE NAME OF AMERICAN PURITANISM THEN, ASSHOLES.

ConHugeCo|8.5.09 @ 8:46AM|#

The US government has the right to tell people what to grow anywhere in the world under the commerce clause. It may some day cross state lines.

Art-P.O.G.|8.5.09 @ 8:47AM|#

'So'only a matter of time before Jong-Un starts street-racing in a tuned NSX.

Art-P.O.G.|8.5.09 @ 8:48AM|#

ConHugeCo for the win.

Karl|8.5.09 @ 8:49AM|#

And who's got the addiction problem?

Opium is the religion of some people.

|8.5.09 @ 8:55AM|#

Wow, nothing like a good Opium hit to start the day!

R
Twww.anon-web-tools.net.tc

Art-P.O.G.|8.5.09 @ 8:56AM|#

I was gonna make a Nietzsche reference earlier too, I swear.

kilroy|8.5.09 @ 8:56AM|#

I wonder if you can deliver opium via e-cigarette.

Art-P.O.G.|8.5.09 @ 8:58AM|#

I don't think the anonymity bot is kidding, either.

Xeones|8.5.09 @ 9:02AM|#

Art, it explains a lot, don't it?

Cabeza de Vaca|8.5.09 @ 9:03AM|#

I think it's time for us to have an intervention with anonymity bot. He's been chasing the dragon way too much lately.

Art-P.O.G.|8.5.09 @ 9:12AM|#

It's funny. We all treated the anonymity bot as a light distraction when all this time he/it was battling some pretty profound addiction problems (and not just addiction to spamming). Xeones, CdV, I'm with you. Let's help the anonymity bot get back on his feet.

the innominate one|8.5.09 @ 9:23AM|#

(Drug currencies aren't actually unusual. ... Parts of colonial America used tobacco as money, ...

tobacco isn't a drug! it's legal!

Buzz|8.5.09 @ 9:34AM|#

I had the pleasure of smoking opium some years back. Bought a gram or two from some Hmongs that lived across the street from a friend's house.

Best. High. Ever.

JD|8.5.09 @ 9:55AM|#

OBVIOUSLY the US only invaded Afghanistan to shut down opium production at the request of Bush's "Big Morphine" buddies in India. No blood for opium! (Actually, in all seriousness, it wouldn't surprise me if some Indian interests DID engage in a little rent-seeking by discouraging legal opium production anywhere else...)

|8.5.09 @ 1:14PM|#

OBVIOUSLY the US only invaded Afghanistan to shut down opium production at the request of Bush's "Big Morphine" buddies in India.

No, man, he did it for the Tasmanians.

|8.5.09 @ 1:20PM|#

If they really wanted to mess with the Afghan poppy growers they'd release a bunch of wallabies in their fields. The little buggers love to eat opium poppies, apparently. :)