> Afghan opium cultivation soars 59 percent in 2006, UNODC survey shows
> ...
>
> "This year's harvest will be around 6,100 tons of opium - a
> staggering 92 percent of total world supply. It exceeds global
> consumption by 30 percent."
The odd thing about this to me is that when I passed through the area 30 years ago (before the Russian invasion or all the later troubles), I saw no opiates at all. Hasish galore, with everyone selling it. Go to a restaurant and the waiter offers you a few grams. Go back to your hotel and the manager wants to sell you a few dozen kilos. Stop at an army checkpoint on the road and the English-speaking officer offers hash!
But no opium, morphine or heroin. I was offerred opium in Iran (then under the Shah) and saw fields of poppies in Turkey, but there was no sign of it in Af. Perhaps I could have found it if I'd looked, but who knows?
So an interesting question is how and why Af became an opium-growing country.
Also, I wonder if they are just talking about opium here:
> Mr Costa urged the Afghan authorities ... to create a
> drug-free Afghanistan province by province.
> "Drug-free areas should be rewarded with more
> substantial and more visible development aid. ...
I worry that they will also attack hasish, something that is very much part of the Aghan culture.
-- Sandy Harris Zhuhai, Guangdong, China