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U.N. Warns Against Afghan Opium Trade

Over the weekend, a top U.N. official warned that opium cultivation in Afghanistan is getting out of control, even as NATO and Afghan troops fight an ongoing insurgency against remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The international organization reported a rise of 59 percent in the cultivation of opium, with a record 6,100 tons being produced. This total equals nearly 92 percent of the world`s usage of opium.

Opium is a chief crop in Afghanistan, and has been for some time. Efforts to stop the harvesting of opium since late 2001, when the United States, her allies in both Afghanistan and from elsewhere, forced the Taliban from power, have proved largely futile.

The United Nation`s anti-drug chief, Antonio Maria Costa, said the Afghanistan government should do more to stop the problem, and accused corrupt senior Afghan officials of pocketing aid money at the same time. Costa pointed out that the Afghan opium trade is "fueling insurgency in western Asia, fueling internationalized organized crime, and causing 100,000 deaths thanks to opium-drug related overdoses every year."