A policeman destroys a poppy field south of Kabul. Photo: AFPFrom The Sydney Morning Herald:
OPIUM production in Afghanistan will contribute $US500 million ($770 million) to drug lords and the Taliban this year and has increased in the south - where Australia's troops are based - despite a drop across the rest of the country, a United Nations report says.
The report, to be released today by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, says opium production has dropped 6 per cent across the country this year and has been eradicated from 18 of 34 provinces. Production has been restricted almost exclusively to the troubled southern provinces, including Oruzgan, where Australia's 1000-plus troops are based and where production rose 26 per cent.
Read more ....
My Comment: Unless the coalition starts to be "heavy handed" in tackling this problem, the drug trade will always be present in this part of the world.