Pubdate: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 Source: Scotsman (UK) Copyright: 2006 The Scotsman Publications Ltd Contact: http://members.scotsman.com/contact.cfm Website: http://www.scotsman.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/406 Author: James Kirkup Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) PRODUCTION OF HEROIN ON THE RISE IN BRITISH FORCES' AREA AFGHAN heroin production has sharply increased this year, with the biggest rise coming in the very province British troops are supposed to be helping to stabilise, it emerged yesterday. United Nations figures expected to be published this weekend will show that this year's poppy crop is up on last year's as many poverty- stricken Afghan farmers return to cultivating the crop. Cutting heroin production is one of Britain's key aims in Afghanistan, and UK officials familiar with the UN figures yesterday admitted that this year's rise was in part a result of the slow progress of development work there. Most embarrassing of all is the fact that Helmand province, where more than 5,000 British troops are deployed in a dangerous "stability" mission, has reported the biggest single annual increase in poppy production. "We are expecting a fairly significant rise in the poppy crop this year," one official said, adding that the bulk of the increase had come in a handful of the 34 provinces, "particularly Helmand". Despite this year's setback, officials insist that counter-narcotics campaigns are succeeding. The poppy crop shrank between 2004 to 2005, and diplomats insisted that the drug mission "has to be considered in the long term - we always said the figures would fluctuate." At the root of the Afghan heroin problem is the country's poverty. Shattered by more than 30 years of conflict, it is still one of the world's poorest, despite five years of intense international development following the toppling of the Taliban. A Foreign Office official yesterday admitted that development was not as fast as planned. "It's probably going, as most things in Afghanistan, rather more slowly than people might have had ambition for, but it's still moving in a positive direction," he said. Related topic Afghanistan http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=444 This article: http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1284532006 Last updated: 30-Aug-06 00:02 BST Comments Add your comment 1. Colin, Out There / 8:43pm 31 Aug 2006 What are British troops supposed to be doing out there anyway? The poppy cultivation will go on, as it has for generations. You cannot 'stabilise' a region by force using what will always be seen as a foreign army. Did we not learn enough about the NorthWest frontier in the 19th century to last us for ever? Bring this ill-advised miliitary deployment home. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman