This year’s political turmoil in Kyrgyzstan has led to a boom in marijuana production. And unlike the two happy-looking Arcata police officers in the photo at right, there seems to be little that Kyrgyz authorities are able to do.
For the police, Orozakunov said officers on monthly salaries of about 2,000 soms, 50 dollars, had little incentive to risk they lives. “Our work is very dangerous, people can shoot us at night and flee,” he said. “There’s no incentive for our officers – officers who seize a consignment of heroin or opium, classified as hard drugs, are awarded small bonuses, but they get nothing for a hashish seizure, however bit it is.”
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Orozakunov said local people commonly carry knives and sometimes guns. Two of his men were seriously injured when they were stabbed while attempting to arrest cannabis harvesters last autumn. But he noted that although the villagers have firearms, they have so far used them only to “shoot into the air to scare the police officers”.
Cannabis grows wild around Issykkul, and because of a slump in tourism after the tulip revolution, more locals than usual have taken to harvesting the abundant (the story says that the plant grows on 67,600 square km of the region) plant to make ends meet.
Of course, if word gets out about cheap, abundant marijuana in such a beautiful, bargain destination, a whole new kind of tourist–the kind from which the police can easily extract bribes–could start showing up.
The whole story is certainly worth reading.
This post was written by...
Nathan Hamm – author of 2974 posts on Registan.net.
Nathan is the Founding Editor and Publisher of Registan.net, which he launched in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with private and government clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural and political factors shape risks and opportunities and how organizations can adjust their strategic and operational plans to account for these variables. Nathan is currently seeking research, analysis, and consulting opportunities. He can be contacted via Twitter or email.
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