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This Is Afghanistan On Drugs
March 24, 2008
Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has made news for as long as President Bush has lauded the country’s embattled government as a foreign policy “success.”
Production of the drug has skyrocketed in recent years and has helped fund the Taliban’s resurgence. [Mic Check]
And now, things are just getting worse. Farmers cultivated a record 477,000 acres of opium in 2007, a 14 percent increase over the previous year. Total production, spurred by unusually high rainfall, increased even further, by 34 percent, the U.N. has said. [AP]
Last year, only 13 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces were poppy-free.
Meanwhile, eradicating the poppy problem is becoming harder and harder. Some 100 police officers on Afghanistan’s poppy eradication force were killed in the line of duty over the last year, an official said Monday.
Ninety percent of the country’s poppies are grown in dangerous regions where insurgents hold sway and the government has little reach.
And get this: Many farmers in poppy-free provinces have started planting marijuana.
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