Afghan Helmand province becoming main drug supplier

Afghan Helmand province becoming main drug supplier

Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:39PM EDT

By Karin Strohecker

VIENNA (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Helmand province, heartland of Taliban

guerrillas fighting NATO forces, is about to become the world's largest drug

supplier, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Helmand, a province in the south of Afghanistan, cultivated more drugs than

entire countries such as Myanmar, Morocco or even Colombia, the Vienna-based

U.N. Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) said in its 2007 World Drug Report.

"Helmand province, severely threatened by insurgency, is becoming the

world's biggest drug supplier. In Afghanistan, opium is a security issue

more than a drug issue," UNODC Director Antonio Marias Costa said in the

report's preface.

"Curing Helmand of its drug and insurgency cancer will rid the world of the

most dangerous source of its most dangerous narcotic, and go a long way to

bringing security to the region."

While the amount of land under illicit poppy cultivation fell by 10 percent

globally between 2000 and 2006, global opium production soared by 43 percent

to a record high of 6,610 tons in 2006 from a year earlier.

This was due to a shift in output from inferior Southeast Asian fields to

more productive ones in Afghanistan -- which in 2006 produced 92 percent of

all opium in the world.

Other worrying signs came from Africa, suggesting the impoverished continent

could find itself at the crossroads of international drug crime.

AFRICA "UNDER ATTACK"

"There are warning signs that Africa is also under attack, targeted by

cocaine traffickers from the west -- Colombia -- and heroin smugglers in the

east -- Afghanistan," the report said.

"This threat needs to be addressed quickly to stamp out drug-related crime,

money-laundering and corruption, and to prevent the spread of drug use that

could cause havoc across a continent already plagued by other tragedies."

The cultivation, production and abuse of almost every kind of drug around

the world -- cocaine, heroin, cannabis and amphetamine-type stimulants --

had stabilized overall.

"Progress made in some areas is often offset by negative trends elsewhere,"

wrote Costa. "But overall, we seem to have reached a point where the world

drug situation has stabilized and been brought under control."

With some 160 million annual customers, cannabis provides the largest

illicit drug market by far. According to U.N. estimates, global cannabis

herb production eased by some 6 percent to 42,000 tons in 2005 from a year

earlier.

"For the first time in years, we do not see an upward trend in the global

production and consumption of cannabis," Costa said.

Cocaine production has remained largely stable over the past few years. It

was estimated at 984 tons in 2006 amid signs of a drop in cultivation in

Andean countries, especially Colombia.

Global output of amphetamine-style stimulants was estimated to have nudged

down by 2 percent to 478 tons in 2005.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2570842120070626

"Roger" <rogerfx@hotmail.com> wrote in message

news:468a2da7$0$14997$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...

> Afghan Helmand province becoming main drug supplier

Excellent news!!

Let the foolish cowardly Euro-trash snort their brains out!!