DUSHANBE, October 10, 2008, Asia-Plus — According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), opium cultivation in Afghanistan in 2008 will be broadly similar to, or only slightly lower than last year”s record harvest of 193,000 hectares, Fakhriddin Jonmahmadov, the chief of staff of the Drug Control Agency (DCA), remarked at a press conference in Dushanbe on October 10.
According to him, notorious for being the world’s biggest producer of opium, Afghanistan has also become a major source of cannabis resin. Cannabis cultivation is increasing in Afghanistan by 35%-40% from year to year, Jonmahmadov added.
Some 70,000 hectares of cannabis were grown in 2007, up from 50,000 in 2006 and 30,000 in 2005.
According to the UNODC report, Afghanistan appears to be overtaking the world’s top cannabis grower, Morocco, where the multi-billion dollar cannabis harvest halved from 2003 to 2006.
Speaking to reporters, the drug control official said that Tajik law enforcement authorities have seized 5,015 kilograms of narcotics over the first nine months of this year, which is 11 percent more than in the same period of 2007, when 4,528 kilograms of narcotics had been seized in the country.
Of those 5,015 kilograms of narcotics, 1,982 kilograms have been intercepted by officers from the interior ministry, 1,152 kilograms by the counter narcotics agency, 1,000 kilograms by border guards, 789 kilograms by the state committee for national security, and 90 kilograms by customs officers.
