War on Drugs, vs Afghanistan's opium poppy crop down 19 percent, Drought helped slash Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation

[Henk Elegeert]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/26/afghanistan.opium.crop.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch

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Afghanistan's opium poppy crop down 19 percent

Story Highlights:
Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation down 19 percent on last year
Drought and anti-drug campaigns reason for drop, officials say
Number of opium-free provinces rose from 13 to 18

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Drought and anti-drug campaigns helped
slash Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation by 19
percent this year compared to 2007, but the country is still far and
away the world's leading source of the heroin-producing crop,
the U.N. said Tuesday.

Successful anti-poppy campaigns in the country's north and east were
mainly to thank for the drop in production but fields in the
south -- where the Taliban insurgency is strongest -- remain awash in
poppies, which provide the main ingredient for heroin, a
U.N. report said.

And because of a rise in yield, opium production this year will fall
only 6 percent compared with last year's record haul and the
Taliban stand to again earn tens of millions of dollars from the drug trade.

Still, the U.N. and other drug officials said this year's results
provided reason to be cautiously optimistic.

"The opium flood waters in Afghanistan have started to recede," the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in its report,
Afghanistan Opium Survey 2008.

Last year opium farmers cultivated 476,903 acres; this year they
cultivated 388,000 acres.

Helmand province -- the country's most violent region -- accounted for
some 66 percent of the crop by itself. Farmers there
cultivated 254,513 acres, up 1 percent from last year. If Helmand
province alone were a country, it would be the world's largest
producer of opium.

The number of opium-free provinces rose from 13 to 18 after extensive
anti-drug efforts in the north and east. Anti-drug officials
were particularly proud that Nangarhar -- last year's second
highest-producing opium province -- was free of the drug this year.

"This is a remarkable accomplishment, the first time it happens in the
country's modern history," the drug report said.

The UNODC said the country's anti-poppy successes could be attributed
to good local governance and drought, which hurt poppy
growth in the north and east.

The U.N. also warned that the government could not let cannabis -- the
precursor to marijuana that is growing in popularity here
among farmers -- replace opium. It also said the country needs a
better justice system to prosecute traffickers, landowners and
corrupt government officials who turn a blind eye to the drug trade.

"Until they all face the full force of the law, the opium economy will
continue to prosper with impunity, and the Taliban will continue
to profit from it," the UNODC said.

It also said the world has a surplus of opium hidden in storage.

The price of fresh opium at harvest dropped 20 percent, from $86 per
kilogram to $70, the UNODC said. The value at harvest of
all of Afghanistan's opium crop dropped from $1 billion in 2007 to
$732 million this year. The overall value of the crop rises two to
four times once it hits the streets from Iran and Pakistan to Europe.

Potential opium production from this year's crop is 8,487 tons, down
from 9,038 tons in 2007.

Eradication -- where Afghan anti-drug police slash opium crops --
dropped to 13,590 acres this year. Afghan officials eradicated
46,949 acres last year.
"

Ze zaten verlegen om een ´positief´ bericht? (Drought and anti-drug
campaigns helped slash Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation)

Henk Elegeert

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