AFGHAN OPIUM PRODUCTION SOARS HIGH

Opium production in Afghanistan increased by 17 per cent in 2007, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on 27 August. Afghan farmers have cultivated poppies on 193,000 hectares which will produce 8,200 metric tonnes of opium in 2007, the survey indicated. Afghanistan alone accounts for 93 per cent of the heroin processed in the world. The UN has warned that Afghanistan’s opium production has reached a “frighteningly new level”. Over three million Afghans are said to be involved in the narcotics trade (cultivation, processing and smuggling). Opium production in Afghanistan in 2007 may cause death to over 100,000 people worldwide, UNODC reported. Most narcotics deaths are likely to happen in China, India and southeast Asia where Afghan opium exports have increasingly found new markets. Europe is another potential buyer of drugs produced in Afghanistan. Over 90 per cent of the heroin sold on black markets in the UK originates from Afghanistan, according to the UN. Most Afghans involved in the opium trade have opted for this unlawful business in order to alleviate their poverty, the 2007 opium survey found. What is driving farmers to defy the government’s ban and cultivate poppy is a price for opium that easily outstrips that of any other agricultural products.