Afghan Route to Prosperity: Grow Poppies

Amy Waldman, New York Times

. . . Across Afghanistan, opium cultivation is surging, defying all
efforts of the Afghan government and international officials to stop
it. Officials are predicting that land under poppy cultivation will
rise by 30 percent or more this year, possibly yielding a record
crop. Last year the country produced almost 4,000 tons —
three-fourths of the world's opium - in 28 of its 32 provinces. The
trade generated $1 billion for farmers and $1.3 billion for
traffickers, according to the United Nations, more than half of
Afghanistan's national income. . . .For many Afghans, poppy has allowed for piety. A United Nations
report on Afghanistan's opium economy noted that 85 percent of opium
traders surveyed had performed the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that
is incumbent on every Muslim but too costly for most Afghans. . . .

Badakshan, here in the north, lays bare narcotics' distorting
economic effects. Poppy cultivation has driven up dowry prices and
raised the cost of labor so much that wheat was not harvested last
year.

. . . With the price of opium stubbornly stuck at more than $135 a
pound, no legal crop can compete. . . .

Full story is here.