DRUG ALERT AS AFGHAN OPIUM CROP SOARS BY 35%

Coalition troops are losing the battle against Afghan drug lords,
causing more heroin to flood into Britain, a damning report will
reveal this month.

A United Nations investigation will show opium production in
Afghanistan rose 35 per cent last year. The findings are an
embarrassment to Britain, which is the country charged by the UN with
eradicating Afghanistan's poppy fields.

Opium from poppies is the raw material needed to produce heroin, and
the figures have serious implications for the drugs trade in the
United Kingdom.

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Charities claim greater cultivation in Afghanistan is likely to lead
to cheaper heroin here. The country provides 70 per cent of the
world's opium production and is responsible for 95 per cent of the
heroin sold in the UK.

The annual UN Afghanistan Opium Survey will show that while production
rose eight per cent last year, this year it rocketed another 35 per
cent. That means opium cultivation is now more widespread than it was
before the Taliban regime was overthrown.

More than 100,000 hectares are now being used for opium cultivation in
Afghanistan - higher than the peak figure of 91,000 hectares in 1999.
The report was originally to have been released at the start of this
month but was delayed because of last weekend's elections in
Afghanistan. It is now not expected to be released until the end of
this month at the earliest.

The failure to clamp down on the opium trade will prompt further
questions about Britain and America's reconstruction efforts in
Afghanistan and Iraq.

Tony Blair cited the campaign against drugs as a key justification for
the war against the Taliban. Before the military invasion in 2001 he
said: "We act because the al Qaeda and the Taliban regime are funded
in large parts by the drugs trade."

Labour MP David Cairns, who has led calls for poppy fields to be
eradicated, accused the Government of not having a strategy to deal
with the problem. He said: "Nobody is going to be surprised there's
been a big increase as we haven't done anything to stop it."

Mr Cairns said the current policy of encouraging farmers to grow
alternative crops, such as saffron, "cannot provide them with anything
like the same money". He added: "In the meantime poppy cultivation
grows, which increases opium supplies, which increases sales of
heroin, which leads to more addicts."

Drug information charity DrugsCope said bumper opium harvests in
Afghanistan were a cause for concern.

A spokesman said: "There is a strong likelihood a big increase in
opium production in Afghanistan will result in increased supply of
heroin to the UK, and an attendant lowering of local prices." The
charity wants to see more international investment in Afghanistan to
encourage opium producers to take up other professions.

But the spokesman added that unless demand was reduced in Britain, it
was unlikely enforcement agencies would be able to reverse the
increase in supply.

Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said he was expecting an increase
in opium production, adding: "We know from other countries which have
managed to stamp it out that cultivation actually increases before
reduction takes effect. Sizeable seizures are being made - 51 tonnes
so far this year - and traffickers are being arrested."

He added: "There are no short cuts to success, but we and the Afghans
are making progress towards a long-term solution. Development projects
are underway to provide farmers with a viable alternative livelihood,
and targeting for next year's poppy crop destruction is in hand.

"The real test of our efforts will be the next planting season."