Afghan opium production 'rises by 61%' compared with 2010

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15254788

Opium production in Afghanistan rose by an estimated 61% this year compared with 2010, according to a UN report.

The increase has been attributed to rising opium prices that have driven farmers to expand cultivation of the illicit opium poppy by 7% in 2011.

Last year opium production halved largely due to a plant infection which drastically reduced yields.

Afghanistan produces 90% of the world's opium - 5,800 tonnes this year - the main ingredient of heroin.

[DJ13]

1. We bust pot dispensaries here in the US

But in a country we have our military in we cant stop millions of acres of opium poppies from growing?

[kenny blankenship]

2. And they can't seem to locate and shut down heroin refineries either

It used to be that Afghanistan exported its poppy crop as raw opium, and it would be refined into heroin elsewhere, so that nearly all the profit from the poppy trade was made by non-Afghan traffickers who did the refining and distribution. Now the poppy production is being exported from Afghanistan as already refined heroin. That requires static factories with stockpiles of opium sitting around, and drums of refining chemicals arriving by trucks, and so forth. It's a big target that sticks out like a neon sign in a countryside otherwise devoid of factories. And yet with all their eye-in-the-sky satellite imaging and unmanned drone technology, the US military can't seem to locate these heroin refineries, which they claim are funding the Taliban insurgency. It's a very curious situation.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Well, THERE is clear evidence that we are accomplishing our goals there.

When the Taliban was in charge, opium production was at an all time low.

We have reversed that trend.

VICTORY!

[unhappycamper]

4. Can we bring them home now?

Declaring Victory and leaving is our best bet.

[Owlet]

5. I hate this story

The BBC is usually better than this.

1. 61%? Not 60% or 62%? How is such a precise number arrived at? We have no idea, of course, 'cause there is

2. no link to the full UN report.

file it under speculative reporting.

[lovuian]

6. that is why America is there for the Heroin

and that is what the corruption of America is about