Report confirms Afghan opium fears
8,200 tonnes of opium were harvested in Afghanistan last year
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Monday, 27, Aug 2007 08:23
Opium production in Afghanistan has reached "frightening record levels", a UN report has found.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), opium cultivation in the troubled south Asian county rose to 193,000 hectares from 165,000.
This gives Afghanistan a total harvest of 8,200 tonnes, up from 6,100 tonnes last year, and means that it is now the largest drug-producing country in the world.
"No other country has produced narcotics on such a deadly scale since China in the 19th century," today's report warns.
The situation is most acute in the country's southern provinces, which border Pakistan where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, with opium production in the war-torn Helmand region growing 48 per cent.
"With a population of just 2.5 million, Helmand has single-handedly become the world's biggest source of illicit drugs, surpassing the output of entire countries – like Colombia (coca), Morocco (cannabis), and Burma (opium) – which have populations up to twenty times larger," said UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa.
But although Mr Costa acknowledged that the situation in Afghanistan was "grim", he insisted it was "not yet hopeless".
Pointing to statistics showing that the number of opium-free provinces in Afghanistan – mostly in the north and centre of the country – more than doubled from six last year to 13, he added: "It would be an historic error to let Afghanistan collapse under the blows of drugs and insurgency.
"Only 14 per cent of the population is involved in opium cultivation. The vast majority of Afghans want to turn their country away from drugs and crime. They deserve our support."
The Taliban reversed their own edict of July 2000 banning poppy cultivation in order to support their insurgency against western troops stationed in the country after the US-led invasion of 2001.
It is estimated that 100,000 people die every year worldwide from heroin abuse.