Afghanistan's Opiate Production Is Soaring

Farmers walk at a poppy field in Jalalabad province (Reuters/Parwiz)

Afghanistan Stores 40,000 Tons Of Opiates – Russia’s Drug Watchdog -- RT

Some forty thousand tons of opiates are stockpiled in Afghanistan, Russian authorities revealed, urging coalition forces to focus on the elimination of drug laboratories in the Islamic Republic.

It is unlikely that the situation with the production and trafficking of drugs will worsen after the scheduled withdrawal of NATO combat troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2014, says Viktor Ivanov, the head of Russia's Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN).

“Narcotics manufacturing is well run in Afghanistan. Around 40,000 tons of opiates are already stored there. So, in fact, they have reached saturation point,” he said as quoted by Interfax.

The amount of drugs in Afghanistan is so large, that markets in neighboring countries are overloaded, Ivanov added.

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My Comment: I hear it all the time from my relatives in Russia .... the opiate/heroin problem has reached crisis proportions .... and all of these drugs are coming from Afghanistan. And while I do not know if the claims that 40,000 tons of opiates are being stored in Afghanistan is true (I have my doubts) .... I do know that the war against heroin production in Afghanistan has been a complete failure .... and it will reach uncontrollable levels when Western forces have finally left.