Pubdate: Tue, 20 Sep 2005
Source: Rapid City Journal (SD)
Copyright: 2005 The Rapid City Journal
Contact:  http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1029
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

U.N. REPORTS FIRST DROP IN AFGHAN OPIUM CULTIVATION SINCE TALIBAN

MOSCOW - The United Nations has recorded the first notable decline in opium 
cultivation in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, but drug 
production remains high due to favorable weather, the head of the U.N. Drug 
Control Agency said Tuesday.

Antonio Maria Costa, who on Tuesday presented a new U.N. report on the drug 
situation in Afghanistan, called the decline "the best drug-related news" 
since the Taliban ouster in 2001.

He said that opium cultivation nonetheless had more than tripled in some 
Afghan provinces governed by warlords suspected of involvement in drug 
trade, and called for their removal.

"Corruption is the wild card, and we have got to remove it from the deck," 
he said.

Costa also called for greater NATO involvement in fighting drugs, noting 
that the northwestern Afghan provinces where opium cultivation has grown 
were places where NATO forces operate.

According to the U.N. report, Afghan opium cultivation dropped by 21 
percent in 2005 compared to the previous year, but production dropped only 
slightly from 4,200 tons in 2004 to 4,100 tons.

Costa said Afghanistan remained the world's largest opium supplier, with 87 
percent of the world market coming from Afghanistan. The opium economy 
makes up 52 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product, and 11 million 
drug addicts worldwide use Afghan heroin, he said.

One-third of the Afghan drug traffic reaches Western markets through the 
so-called northern route, via the ex-Soviet Central Asia and Russia, and 
another two-thirds arrives via Pakistan and Iran, he said.

Costa, who met reporters in Moscow alongside Viktor Cherkesov, the head of 
Russia's Federal Drug Control Service, said that the flow of Afghan heroin 
seriously aggravated the HIV/AIDS problem in Russia and Ukraine, where 
drugs are largely taken through injection.

Cherkesov said that in summer his agency recorded a sharp increase in the 
amount of illegal Afghan drugs coming into Russia.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman