FYI

The following article from CNN, dated November last year, stated that the
Taliban had banned the growing of poppies for heroin production because it
is against the principles of Islam

http://www2.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/central/11/15/poppy.ban.ap/

The following article from ABC NEWS dated March this year stated that a UN
survey had confirmed that opium production had ceased in Taliban controlled
territory

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/stratfor010301.html


Regards to all,

Stephen Due
Geelong Hospital Library


-----Original Message-----
From: David Fahey [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, 21 September 2001 6:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Afghan opium production


Jon Miller forward a Pete Hamill article about Afghanistan.  I pass along
the paragraph on opium.

One huge cash crop

Afghanistan is now the world's largest producer of opium, having
surpassed Burma in the past few years. It is estimated - by the CIA,
the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. State Department -
that in 1999 it produced 1,670 metric tons of opium, up 23% from
1998. Some 51,500 hectares are under cultivation. An intricate
shipping network has existed since the time of the 1979-89 war with
the Soviet Union, with raw opium base moving into Pakistan for
refinement into heroin (and increasingly being refined in Afghanistan
itself), and then on to Turkey, Canada and the streets of American
cities, including New York.