Afghanistan Opium Poppy Cultivation Highlighted in UNODC Annual Report 2008

'Seeds of Insecurity: The Afghan Opium Problem - UNODC Annual Report 2008', United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 10 March 2008

EXCERPT: "The situation in Afghanistan is blighting an otherwise improving drugs picture. The production of opium, the raw material for heroin, soared in 2007, rising 34 per cent from the already record levels of 2006, according to the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2007 of UNODC. Production reached 8,200 tons, a vast narcotics harvest of unprecedented size in modern times and unseen since the opium boom in China during the nineteenth century. That output represented 93 per cent of the world’s supply and outstripped global demand, which is estimated at 4,500 tons. Much of the opium will end up on European streets as heroin, the hardest of drugs. Drug abuse also rose rapidly in Afghanistan, as the number of addicts, both adults and children, grew.

"The size of Afghanistan’s opium economy exceeded half the country’s licit gross domestic product (53 per cent), according to the Survey. The total export value of opiates in Afghanistan reached about $4 billion, a 29 per cent increase compared to 2006. About a quarter of that went to opium farmers while almost three  quarters lined the pockets of traffickers. District officials took their cut, along with insurgents and warlords. The area devoted to opium poppy cultivation surged to 193,000 ha, double the 2005 figure. This expanse was greater than the area devoted to growing coca bush in all of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru."

Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, 2005-2007

To continue reading the report, click here.

See also:
'Global drugs problem contained, but not solved: UN', Agence France Presse, 10 March 2008
'Afghanistan parliament approves new drugs minister', Agence France Presse, 1 March 2008
'Record for Afghan poppy planting', BBC News, 29 February 2008
'Thriving Afghan opium crop hampers development: IMF', Reuters, 20 February 2008

Related posts:
'Afghan opium fields show failure of US economic-aid efforts', 12 February 2008
'Opium winter rapid assessment survey: UNODC', 6 February 2008
'Poppy seeds and dragon's teeth: NATO confronts an opium-funded war in Afghanistan - Report', 24 January 2008