UN survey: Afghan opium high in 2008
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Opium growth in Afghanistan's unstable south and southwest continues at an alarming rate, and is a windfall for anti-government forces who tax farmers, a U.N. report said Wednesday.
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A record Afghan opium poppy crop means more will die of heroin overdoses in European cities, the UN warns.
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The international community is making significant strides toward ridding northern Afghanistan of opium, a U.S. counter-narcotics official said Friday, despite setbacks in the Taliban-controlled south and forecasts of another record year of poppy cultivation.
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Afghanistan's opium cultivation jumped  64 percent to a record 324,000 acres this year and drug exports  now account for more than 60 percent of the economy, the United  Nations drugs office said Thursday.
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Opium production has soared to "frightening record levels" in Afghanistan, which now has more land producing drugs than Columbia, Bolivia and Peru combined, the United Nations said on Monday.
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AFGHANISTAN is in danger of becoming a &quot;narco-state&quot; because soaring opium cultivation now accounts for 60 per cent of the economy, the United Nations warned yesterday.
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Responding to a U.N. report warning it  risks becoming a narco-state after opium cultivation jumped to  record levels, Afghanistan said Friday the war on drugs was the  top priority but opposed aerial spraying of opium fields.
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Afghanistan&#39;s poppy cultivation increased by almost two-thirds this year and accounts for 87% of world supply of raw opium, a UN report said yesterday, warning of the country&#39;s descent into a drugs-based economy.
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The United States estimated on Thursday that Afghanistan's opium production hit a record high last year and said the narcotics trade is undermining democracy and security in the Southwest Asian U.S. ally.
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Although opium production is up in Afghanistan, cocaine consumption is rising in Europe and trafficking is growing in Africa, drug abuse is being brought under control.
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The Taliban has seen a resurgence in Afghanistan due in part to proceeds from the nation's drug trade. Afghanistan produces about 93 percent of the world's illicit opium, despite U.S. efforts to eradicate it. "You can try to kill us but we will still grow poppy," one farmer told CNN.
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The UN fears Afghanistan may grow even more poppies in 2007, surpassing already record levels.
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Afghanistan is on its way to becoming a "narco-state" and U.S. and NATO-led forces in the country should get more involved in fighting the drug trade as well as terrorists, according to a U.N. report released Thursday.
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A huge leap in opium poppy growing in Afghanistan, revealed by a US study released Friday, threatens the fragile democracy and increases pressure on anti-narcotics efforts to succeed, top federal officials said.
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Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the source of most of the opium and heroin on Europe's streets, was up sharply this year.
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Living in Afghanistan, the world's unrivalled producer of heroin, Faqirullah has no problem finding drugs to feed his habit. What concerns him is getting the cash to buy them.
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- The burgeoning illegal opium trade in Afghanistan has become the biggest single threat to democracy, surpassing Al Qaeda and the Taliban and prompting US officials to consider military intervention against the traffickers, US and Afghan officials say.