Afghanistan: March 4, 2005

Archives

The illegal drug industry is rapidly growing in Afghanistan. In the last year, the acreage planted in poppies has tripled (to about half a million acres.) It is believed that about 90 percent of the world's heroin now comes from Afghanistan (5,000 tons of opium, much of which is refined into heroin). Most of these drugs go to Asian and European countries. Addiction is becoming a major problem in Iran and Pakistan. Some of this heroin reaches the United States, which still gets half its heroin from Colombia. Burma, along the Chinese border, was long the main source of heroin, but currently only produces about 300 tons of opium a year. 

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close