DUSHANBE, March 9, Asia-Plus – International Drug Control Committee says that if Afghanistan does not take efficient measures to resolve the corruption problem, the government’s efforts in the area of narcotics control will prove to be unsuccessful, Vladimir Sotirov, Head of the UN Tajikistan Office of Peace-Building (UNTOP), at a ceremony of presentation of International Drug Control Committee’s world drug report 2006.
The ceremony of the presentation of the report that was published in Vienna on March 1 was held in Dushanbe on March 7.
According to Sotirov, the Committee expressed concern that the drug situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. “Afghanistan has made very few success in the area of the drug control, especially in eradication of cultivation of poppy and production of opium,” said Sotirov, “Compared to 2005, cultivation of poppy rose 59 percent and a volume of production of raw opium rose almost 50 percent in 2006, reaching a record output of 6,100 tons.” Poppies are not produced only six of 34 provinces of the country, according to him.
The UNTOP head also noted that besides illicit poppy production, Afghanistan is also faced with a problem of the narcotics taking. The first national survey of drug problems in Afghanistan has shown that some 1 million people, including 60,000 teenagers below the age of 15, in the country are taking narcotics.
On the eradication efforts in Afghanistan, the report said that last year, poppies were eradicated in a total area of 15,300 hectares, which is three times more than in 2005, when poppies were eradicated in the area of 5,000 hectares.
Representatives from the UN office on drugs and crime Krister Branerud (phonetically spelled) and Sergey Bozhko, as well as Tajik drug control chief Rustam Nazarov attended the ceremony of the presentation of world drug report 2006.
We will recall that BBC News reported on March 6 that the United Nations says it fears that Afghanistan may grow even more poppies in 2007 – at a time when current levels are already running at record output. BBC said that according to the US State Department, poppy production rose 25% in 2006, according to the US State Department. According to BBC, the UN says although production of poppies, used to make heroin, has fallen in the north and center, a sharp rise is likely in the lawless south. It also cites a dramatic increase in cannabis growing, which it describes as a new and disturbing trend. Four years after the US and its British allies began combating poppy production, Afghanistan still accounts for 90% of the world”s opium trade, according to BBC.
