Pubdate: Sun, 25 Sep 2005
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/208
Author: Severin Carrell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

UK FAILS TO STOP AFGHAN HEROIN

Heroin from Afghanistan will flow into Britain for at least another 10
years despite a multi-million-pound effort to combat the trade, The
Independent on Sunday can reveal.

Senior Western officials in Kabul have admitted for the first time
that they are resigned to Afghanistan being a major source of heroin
for at least a decade because the country's crippled economy is so
dependent on the industry.

"There's no magic bullet," one senior Whitehall official said. "It's a
long-term campaign over many years."

The war-torn country is the world's largest source of heroin,
producing 85 per cent of the global supply, with a value estimated at
$2bn (UKP1.1bn).

The UK was given the task of leading the global campaign to eradicate
opium three years ago - chiefly because 95 per cent of the heroin used
in Britain is from Afghanistan.

But progress in stopping poppy cultivation has been slower than
expected, leading to intense criticism from US drugs enforcers.

In the four years since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001,
Afghanistan has produced more heroin than ever before.Earlier this
month, the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, conceded it had been far
harder to combat the trade than expected. He said the UK will spend
another UKP115m on its Afghan drugs campaign over the next three
years, taking the total to UKP270m.

Last night Mike Trace, the Government's former deputy drugs tsar and
now director of the Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme, said:
"It worries me this position isn't being discussed with the profession
and the public. If we want to get to grips with the drugs problem, we
need a more open debate." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake