Afghanistan is still the top supplier of heroin to Europe and produces almost the entire bulk of opiates consumed in central Asia, a top United Nations narcotics official said on Tuesday.
”Afghanistan is the source of about 70 to 90% of the
heroin found in European markets,” said Bernard Frahi, the head of the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP), on the eve of the World Day Against Drug Abuse and Trafficking.
”Afghanistan is the source of almost 100% of opiates
(opium, morphine and heroin) consumed in neighbouring countries meaning Iran, Pakistan and central Asian states,” including former Soviet states, Frahi told a briefing in the Afghan capital.
He said a UNDCP report, to be released at its Vienna
headquarters on Wednesday, put the number of opiate users in the region at roughly 3,5 million including two million in Russia, he said.
The illicit trade in Afghan opium and heroin supplies about two-thirds of the world’s opiate abusers, Frahi said, adding that the trade was growing.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has committed his administration to eradicating poppy-cultivation from the country.
He issued two separate decrees earlier this year calling for an end to the poppy cultivation throughout the country.
Opium production had fallen drastically under the former Taliban regime after it placed a total ban on poppy cultivation.
But local farmers have resumed growing poppies in many provinces since the Taliban’s fall and its replacement by the Karzai-led administration in December. – Sapa-AFP