DRUGS: AFGHANISTAN ON THE BRINK OF FAILURE

KABUL (Agencies): Less than three years after the first bomb was dropped on
Afghan soil by the US-led coalition against the Taliban, Afghanistan looks
like its becoming a failed state.

In the government's bid to create a modern, democratic country free from
corruption, "terrorism" and drugs, the opposite has happened. "There is a
palpable risk that Afghanistan will again turn in to a failed state in the
hands of drug cartels and narco-terrorists," says Antonio Maria Costa, the
executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,
worldnews.com reported.

He warns that if the Afghan government supported by the international
community does not take the necessary measures the "drug cancer will spread
beyond the country's borders". Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is
rising once again, rivalling its all-time peak of 1999 when a staggering
91,000 hectares were recorded.

The Taliban government, under intense international pressure and in
desperate need of recognition, banned the practice and legislated against
heroin.

As a direct result, there was a sharp decline in production compared to the
previous two years.

In 2001, the UN recorded just 8000 hectares of poppy cultivation. By 2002,
the figures recorded by the UN survey show a return to the mid-1990s level
of 70,000 to 80,000 hectares [of poppy growth]. The Taliban's success could
be accredited only to the nature of its uncompromising government. The fear
of the repercussions was enough for farmers to abandon their crops.

However, after the fall of the Taliban, production rose sharply again.

By 2002, the figures recorded by the UN survey show a return to the
mid-1990s level of 70,000 to 80,000 hectares.

In 2003, the UN recorded an increase in poppy cultivation of eight per cent
from 2001. The 80,000 hectares in 2003 is the third highest record in the
past five years.

What is alarming is the rapid spread of poppy cultivation to previously
unaffected areas.

Today, 28 out of 32 provinces grow poppies.

New information arriving from Ghazni and Paktica provinces suggests that
they too have joined the trend.