Drug trade 'threatens Afghanistan'

Afghan police burn drugs in Kandahar earlier this month

(CNN) -- Curbing Afghanistan's illicit trade in opium poppy is "inextricably linked" to the country's attempt to find peace and stability, a United Nations report has concluded.

Despite the banning of opium poppy cultivation in areas controlled by the Taliban, the flow of heroin -- opium's derivative product -- from Afghanistan increased in 2001, according to the U.N.'s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

Opium has been attributed as one of the most destructive factors undermining Afghan national stability, with farming being displaced by opium cultivation, rival warlords competing to dominate trade routes and money laundering, blackmail of officials and violence commonplace.

"We are seriously concerned that illicit cultivation of opium poppy in Afghanistan is again increasing and we want to see international cooperation to prevent Afghanistan again becoming the world's largest producer of opium," INCB president Hamid Ghodse said.

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The INCB has called on the international community to provide adequate technical and financial assistance to Afghanistan so it can implement international drug control treaties.

The board also urges the authorities in Afghanistan, now or in the future, to commit themselves to full compliance with international drug control treaties.

The interim government of Hamid Karzai has, like the Taliban before it, implemented a total ban on poppy cultivation. But the extent of the problem facing the Karzai government is daunting.

Despite the harvest in the crop year 2000/2001 being estimated at less than one tenth of the harvest in the previous crop year, the flow of illicit drugs from Afghanistan actually increased, highlighting the complexity of the trafficking industry in Central Asia and the vast reserve stockpiles in Afghanistan and neighboring countries.

In recent years, Afghanistan was the main source of illicit opium globally, with 70 percent of total production in 2000. As much as 90 percent of heroin in European drug markets is believed to have originated in Afghanistan.

AIDS on rise

On Monday, the United States waived narcotics sanctions against Afghanistan despite what it described as the country's demonstrable failure to curb poppy cultivation.

US President George W. Bush said the sanctions were waived in "vital national interests".

The INCB also cited the opium flood as undermining those countries in path of the traffic to South East Asia.

"Opiate addiction rates in Iran and Pakistan continue to be among the highest in the world. Opium addicts are increasingly abusing heroin because it has become more available than opium," the 2002 annual report said.

"The board is concerned that, throughout West Asia, heroin abuse and HIV infection resulting from the sharing of needles are spreading."