POPPY GROWING BANNED BY AFGHANISTAN RULERS

Taliban rulers in Afghanistan on Friday ordered a complete ban on growing
poppy, the plant from which heroin is made and a major crop in the Central
Asian nation. It was not clear what prompted the order from the Taliban's
Supreme Leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, which was reported on Taliban-run Radio
Shariat. The order comes just two months before planting season for poppy
growers in several provinces of Afghanistan, the largest opium-producing
nation in the world. Opium is squeezed from the bulb of the crimson red
poppy plant and made into heroin in hundreds of laboratories tucked in the
hills of Afghanistan.

Omar threatened stiff penalties for farmers who ignored the ban and said
poppy crops would be destroyed, according to Radio Shariat. In the past, the
Taliban has refused to implement a complete ban on poppy growing, saying it
needed aid from abroad to help farmers grow alternate crops.