Afghanistan's soaring opium production threatens to wreck efforts to rebuild the country after years of war, the UN and the World Bank have warned.
Afghanistan supplies more than 90% of world opium and wiping out the illegal trade will take a generation, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said.
The drug trade accounts for a third of the economy and permeates the "higher levels of government", the report said.
It says 2006 saw opium cultivation rise by 60% and production by 50%.
That's a lot of Opium. Of course, Afghanistan is where the British got their opium (that they sent to China) centuries ago.. I guess it must grow really well there. Opium money is tied to insurgent threats and vice versa, but the bad news is many poor farmers make their money off this stuff.
I say good luck with getting rid of the opium.. they'll need it.
