U.S. counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan are in a “perilous state” despite billions of dollars spent to combat the spread of drug production there, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko told Congress on Wednesday. [snip] Poppy cultivation hit a record level in 2013, with 209,000 hectares, or about 516,000 acres, devoted to growing the picturesque red flowers that provide the base ingredient for opiate drugs, including heroin, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. That’s a 36 percent increase over 2012.