Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jun 2007
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2007 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Karin Strohecker, Reuters
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

WORLD'S LARGEST DRUG SUPPLIER: HELMAND PROVINCE

Afghanistan's Helmand province, heartland of Taliban guerrillas 
fighting NATO forces, is about to become the world's largest drug 
supplier, the United Nations said today.

Helmand, a province in the south of Afghanistan, cultivated more 
drugs than entire countries such as Myanmar, Morocco or even 
Colombia, the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crimes said in its 
2007 World Drug Report.

"Curing Helmand of its drug and insurgency cancer will rid the world 
of the most dangerous source of its most dangerous narcotic, and go a 
long way to bringing security to the region," said UNODC Director 
Antonio Marias Costa in the report's preface.

While the amount of land under illicit poppy cultivation fell by 10 
per cent globally between 2000 and 2006, global opium production 
soared by 43 per cent to a record high of 6,610 tonnes in 2006 from a 
year earlier.

This was due to a shift in output from inferior southeast Asian 
fields to more productive ones in Afghanistan - which in 2006 
produced 92 per cent of all opium in the world.

Other worrying signs came from Africa, suggesting the impoverished 
continent could find itself at the crossroads of international drug crime.

"There are warning signs that Africa is also under attack, targeted 
by cocaine traffickers from the west - Colombia - and heroin 
smugglers in the east - Afghanistan," the report said.

"This threat needs to be addressed quickly to stamp out drug-related 
crime, money-laundering and corruption, and to prevent the spread of 
drug use that could cause havoc across a continent already plagued by 
other tragedies." The cultivation, production and abuse of almost 
every kind of drug around the world - cocaine, heroin, cannabis and 
amphetamine-type stimulants - had stabilized overall.

With about 160 million annual customers, cannabis provides the 
largest illicit drug market by far. According to UN estimates, global 
cannabis herb production eased by 6 per cent to 42,000 tonnes in 2005 
from a year earlier.

Cocaine production has remained largely stable over the past few 
years. It was estimated at 984 tonnes in 2006 amid signs of a drop in 
cultivation in Andean countries, especially Colombia.

Global output of amphetamine-style stimulants was estimated to have 
nudged down by 2 per cent to 478 tonnes in 2005.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman