Afghanistan - Drugs

Despite the don't askDdon't tell antidrug stance of the Taliban, Afghanistan is the major poppy growing nation in the world (after Myanmar) and a major transporter. The latest word on the street is that bin Laden is buying up raw opium and using it to fight a second front in his war against the West. About $350 of opium gum can be refined into herioin worth a street price of $70,000 in New York. Farmers in Helmand and Nangarhar provinces grow poppies, which are cut to ooze gum. The gum is gathered and send to the 60 or so labs in the southeast and east of Afghanistan. Wrapped tightly in plastic or in glass jars it is shipped to Pakistan across Iran or through Turkmenistan to Turkey or north to Tajikistan, where the Russian military expedites its shipment to Moscow.

Afghanistan is the largest grower of poppies (4,600 tonnes in 1999 compared to 1,300 tonnes from Myanmar) and the largest exporter of hashish in the world. Up to 14 metric tons of hashish have been seized by the border states of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. Badakhshan borders Tajikistan, where Russia has deployed 25,000 troops to help fight antigovernment Islamic guerrillas believed to have bases in Afghanistan. Strangely, Osama's efforts to corner the market has pushed the price down to $37 a kilo (2.2 lbs.) from $60.

http://www.afghan-politics.org/Reference/Drugs/drugs_main.htm