As opium prices soar Afghan drug war stumbles

[primroselane]

"The price of opium is now seven times higher than wheat, and there is a $58 billion demand for narcotics, so our farmers have no disincentive to cultivate poppy," said Mohammed Azhar, deputy minister for counternarcotics. "We have gotten a lot of help, but it is not enough. Afghanistan is still producing 85 percent of the opium in the world, and it is still a dark stain on our name."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...=moreheadlines

Losing the War on Drugs is so costly in so many ways.

[mightybooboo]

Hey,since weve landed there the crops have never been better.What does that tell you people who can think?

[primroselane]

That we won the Drug War?

[randy11acres]

We are the ones who buy the majority of it so who is to blame! Same with the drug related killings just across the border in Mexico. If there wasn't the demand in the USA there would not be that problem.

[kirkmcquest]

First the price of food goes up, then fuel, now opium....whats next?

[Bearfootfarm]

"The price of opium is now seven times higher than wheat,

It always has been

And there are conflicting reports on how much is being grown:

September 2009 – Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has slumped for the second year, according to a United Nations report released today, which warns that huge, hidden stashes of the illicit drug are a “ticking bomb” in the country responsible for producing almost all of the world’s opium.
Assigning credit for the 22 per cent drop in opium cultivation to more robust counter-narcotics operations by Afghan and NATO forces, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that 20 of the South Asian country’s 34 provinces are now poppy-free – a rise of two over last year. The number of hectares of land harvesting the crop has also fallen by 123,000.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.as...&Cr=afghan&Cr1