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Posted by Alexander (Guest) - Wednesday, October 29 2003, 21:28:02 (EST)
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[Now, you know damn well that the US is making profits off of the opium fields]

Afghanistan Boosts Position as World's Largest Opium Producer
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan strengthened its position as the world's leading producer of opium, with as much as half of its gross domestic product deriving from growing the illicit crop, a United Nations survey found.

Afghan opium poppy farmers harvested 3,600 metric tons of opium this year, supplying three quarters of the world total, compared with 3,400 tons in 2004, UN figures show. The area under opium cultivation increased 8 percent to 80,000 hectares within a year, the world body said.

The increase may prompt even more farmers to grow poppies in the new season just starting, as the government is trying to stamp out cultivation. Growers took advantage of a vacuum created by the ousting of the Islamic Taliban rulers in November 2001. A ban set by the interim Afghan authority in January 2002 has remained largely ineffective.

``Either major surgical drug-control measures are taken now, or the drug cancer in Afghanistan will keep spreading'' leading to ``corruption, violence and terrorism,'' Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime will say at a press briefing in Moscow today, according to a pre-release of his speech.

The increase in production led to a 19 percent decline in the price of raw opium, representing total sales of $1 billion, or 23 percent of Afghanistan's GDP, the UN office said. Farmers had their most lucrative year ever in 2002, with the crop bringing $1.2 billion.

Ten kilograms of raw opium make about 1 kilogram of heroin. Heroin is 10 times lighter and less odorant than opium, making it easier to smuggle through checkpoints. On European streets, heroin prices range between $30,000 to $100,000 a kilo.

Traffickers

``These estimates do not include the profits subsequently made by the traffickers,'' the UN said. ``Income from farming and trafficking in 2003 may have amounted to about half of the country's GDP.''

About 7 percent, or 1.7 million people Afghans, are involved in opium farming, the agency said.

Opium growing families earned $3,900 on average in 2003, the report found. Most civil servants in Afghanistan earn approximately $30 per month plus food, according to CARE, a U.S.- based private humanitarian organization.

Afghan drug dealers are providing local farmers with fertilizers and wheat reserves to encourage them to switch to opium poppy production, making it difficult for the government to compete. Farmers also receive cash advances from the opium dealers.

Exit Road

The main exit road for raw opium or processed heroin is neighboring Iran, which accounts for almost half of the transit, the UN has said. About 35 percent leaves the country via Pakistan, and the rest through the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

Afghan farmers grew opium poppies, used in traditional medicine, for decades, long before the 1979 Soviet invasion which led to 23 years of war. Production surged in the 1990s as large drug dealers' organizations emerged.

The rise in production threatens the country as a whole. According to UNODCCP data, each opium-producing country or opium- transiting country eventually becomes a consuming country.

To compile its survey, UNODCCP used high-resolution satellite images backed by on-the-ground visits

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