The report says opium is now the "main engine of economic growth" in Afghanistan and "the strongest bond among previously quarrelsome peoples."
The UN report values the drug trade at $2.8 billion annually, or more than 60 percent of Afghanistan's 2003 gross domestic product.
It says this year's cultivation of opium -- the raw material for heroin -- was up by nearly two-thirds, and now accounts for 87 percent of world supply.
The report's author, Antonio Maria Costa, says the problem too big for the Afghan government alone. He calls on U.S.-led and NATO-led forces to participate in operations against drug labs and convoys of traffickers.
(AP/AFP)
The UN report values the drug trade at $2.8 billion annually, or more than 60 percent of Afghanistan's 2003 gross domestic product.
It says this year's cultivation of opium -- the raw material for heroin -- was up by nearly two-thirds, and now accounts for 87 percent of world supply.
The report's author, Antonio Maria Costa, says the problem too big for the Afghan government alone. He calls on U.S.-led and NATO-led forces to participate in operations against drug labs and convoys of traffickers.
(AP/AFP)
