The Dramatic Rise of Opium in Afghanistan

The Dramatic Rise of Opium in Afghanistan

An article (UN Warns Afghanistan Becoming ‘Narco-State’
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-11/19/article05.shtml )
on a new United Nations survey released on Thursday, reports on the dramatic rise in opium cultivation in Afghanistan over the past year. The U.N. report in 2003 found that one in 10 Afghans — many of them unemployed returned refugees — is involved in the drugs trade which last year employed 2.3 million people, and made up 60 per cent of the gross national product.

In just one year, the area under cultivation increased by 64 per cent, with the output estimated at 4,200 tons, a 17 per cent increase on last year with only disease and bad weather acting as drag factors.

This is the great accomplishment of the US war on terrorism in Afghanistan.