Record High Afghanistan Poppy Crop....but in 2001, there was none

Opium poppy production in Afghanistan reached another record high last year and Kabul must do more to stop it, a US State Department report says.

The report says that the poppy cultivation helps Taleban insurgents obtain money and weapons.

The drug trade hinders progress towards economic stability and democracy, the report adds.

Afghanistan grows nearly all of the world's opium poppy crop in an illegal trade worth billions of dollars.

"Eliminating narcotics cultivation and trafficking in Afghanistan will require a long-term national and international commitment," said the State Department.
[...]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7271654.stm

But.....

Prior to the 2001 war, Afghanistan had a long history of heroin and opium production. Following the advice of the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP), the Taliban government banned opium production in 2000. Opium production subsequently suffered more than a 90% decrease. The opposition Northern Alliance fiercely protected the remaining raw opium marketing and production. According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the country produced over 70% of global opium production and 80% of heroin exported to the European market in 2000 prior to the ban. Accounting for 100 to 200 billion dollars annually, Afghanistan’s drug trade stood for a third of worldwide narcotics profits.
[...]
Center for Advanced Defense Studies

And...
Afghanistan eradicates opium poppy production
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2001/07/04/opium010704.html
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 4, 2001 | 10:11 PM ET
CBC News
The United Nations Drug Control Program says the world's biggest heroin producing country, Afghanistan, has gone out of the drug business.

A UNDCP report to be released next month will say Afghanistan has completely eradicated cultivation of the opium poppy, the plant producing the resin which is refined into heroin.

"We do not grow poppies and we will not grow them. This is a Taliban edict and it must be obeyed," Sheikh Rashimi, leader of the village of Spenghagbarga, told the CBC's Patrick Brown.

Spenghagbarga is just a dusty truck stop of a village. It used to be a way station on the long journey from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the heroin dealers on the streets of Moscow, London, New York and Vancouver.

The Taliban's ban on opium products has cost many people their livelihoods. But no one dares defy the ban.

Last year Afghanistan produced almost 4,000 tonnes of opium. This year's figure is zero.
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Wiki: Northern Alliance
The United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (UIF, Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islami-yi Milli bara-yi Nijat-i Afghanistan), also known as the Northern Alliance (term used by the Western media), was a military-political umbrella organization created by the Islamic State of Afghanistan in 1996. The organization united various Afghan groups fighting against each other to fight the Taliban instead.

In late 2001, with extensive assistance from U.S. air support and United States Special Forces, the UIF succeeded in retaking most of Afghanistan from the Taliban. Despite fears of a return to the chaos similar to that of the Afghan Civil War (1992-1996), the UIF factions largely accepted the new order.

Things that make you go, Hmmmmm...

They don't call him "Poppy" for nothing.