Opium production soars in Afghanistan: UN

Yahoo ^ | 1/12/12 | AFP

[NormsRevenge]

Production of opium and the illicit crop's value soared in Afghanistan last year, the United Nations said in a report released Thursday.

According to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, farmer income derived from Afghanistan's opium crop in 2011 was $1.4 billion (1.09 billion euros), representing nine percent of GDP.

"Opium is therefore a significant part of the Afghan economy and provides considerable funding to the insurgency and fuels corruption," Yury Fedotov, executive director of the UN office, said in a statement.

Afghanistan grows about 90 percent of the world's opium. The UN said poppy-crop cultivation covered more than 131,000 hectares in 2011, up seven per cent from the previous year.

The overall opium crop increased by 61 per cent, from 3,600 metric tons in 2010 to 5,800 metric tons in 2011.

[NormsRevenge]

It represents 1/10th of the country's GDP. wow.

[DonaldC]

They may not understand democracy but they got capitalism! hehe

[PGR88]

Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

[NormsRevenge]

better to be a seller than a consumer.

[Elle Bee]

the region should become a nuclear test site

.

[ejonesie22]

Hum, they must be exporting it to the US.

Would explain the uptick in Ron Paul's support...

[GoldenPup]

Production of opium and the illicit crop's value soared in Afghanistan last year, the United Nations said

The United Nations couldn't find it's own A$$ with both hands...in TimeSquare...at high noon...with pre-printed instructions.

[rfreedom4u]

Easy fix! Any field found with poppies growing in it will be plowed under and salted.