AFGHANISTAN: Survey predicts rise in opium production in 2006

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/ad65095caec89c5ff5fd5fe0d40dafc8.htm

AFGHANISTAN: Survey predicts rise in opium production in 2006

KABUL, 6 March (IRIN) - A recent survey shows that Afghan farmers are planting more poppy this year than in 2005, in what remains the world's biggest opium producing country, the United Nations warned on Monday.

A rapid assessment survey of poppy production was carried out jointly by the Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) in December 2005 and January 2006. The study was carried out by 70 local field surveyors in 469 villages in 266 districts across the country.

The survey is conducted annually in advance of the full opium survey, which is published in autumn each year. In last year's survey, published in November 2005, UNODC reported that the amount of land under cultivation with opium had decreased by 21 percent compared to 2004.

"This year, an increase is expected," Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told a press briefing in the capital Kabul.

[sattahipdeep]

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Friends of Dick Cheney

[shadowknows69]

2. Any wonder why

Heroin seems to be the "in vogue" drug again. It's devistating the small upstate NY city I live in.