FARMERS RETURN TO GROWING CANNABIS

KABUL (NNI): Cannabis farmers in Afghanistan who stopped growing the drug
crop under the Taliban rule have started once again.The Taliban outlawed
growing of the plants, which grow naturally in the area on a commercial basis.

But fields of cannabis plants some well over 6ft-high, line part of the
main road leading west from Mazar-e-Sharif, the biggest city in northern
Afghanistan.

With the main harvest expected in one to two months, growers in the
roadside village of Khana Abad said they would ignore government warnings
to tear up their crops.

"Maybe it isn't good for our people, but we have to do it because of our
economic problems," said Rouzudin, a farmer who said he heard the warnings
broadcast on the radio only after investing a large sum in his hemp plot.

He said he might be able to harvest his leafy, dark green crop without
state intervention.

Since the Taliban were ousted in a US-led war last year, Afghanistan's new
government and the United Nations have focused anti-drug efforts on
eradicating opium-bearing poppies, which are used to make heroin.

Afghanistan was once the source of 70 per cent of the world's opium, much
of it originating in the south of the country.

The Taliban successfully banned poppies in 2000, but farmers quickly
planted them again after the fall of the regime.

During the harvest earlier this year, the government offered compensation
money to farmers who abandoned opium, but many reaped their harvest anyway.

Cannabis is less of a priority, even though Afghanistan, especially the
northern part, is a major producer.