Afghan opium growth sees "alarming" rise, U.N. says

[unhappycamper]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/20/us-afghanistan-opium-idUSBRE8AJ13A20121120




Afghan opium growth sees "alarming" rise, U.N. says
By Martin Petty and Miriam Arghandiwal
KABUL | Tue Nov 20, 2012 12:09pm EST

(Reuters) - Afghanistan needs to be more serious about fighting drugs after an "alarming" 18 percent increase in opium cultivation this year, the U.N. drugs agency said on Tuesday.

The rise was mainly due to high prices and a failure of state agencies to work together to wipe out a trade that helps fund the Taliban-led insurgency, a United Nations report said.

Some experts say the departure of most NATO-led forces by the end of 2014 could trigger a spike in the growth of poppy in a war-torn country responsible for 90 percent of the world's opium, a trend likely to worry western governments.

Jean-Luc Lemahieu, Afghanistan country representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), warned opium cultivation could climb higher next year if the government failed to better coordinate its efforts and make counter narcotics a priority.

[Scuba]

1. No one could have predicted that.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. Hamid Karzai will get right on that

He'll undoubtedly come down hard on any opium production that doesn't benefit his brother.