from The Times:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001330016-2001332309,00.html

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 25 2001

Flood of cheap Afghan heroin

FROM STEPHEN FARRELL IN ISLAMABAD

AFGHAN farmers are ready to swamp world markets with heroin amid
signs that the Taleban has dropped its ban on opium growing.

The ban was imposed by Mullah Muhammad Omar last year, leaving many
farmers ruined. But the sudden halving of the price of raw opium to
$250 a kg suggests the decree has been reversed. Even if it remains
in place, desperate farmers are expected to resume planting next
month while Taleban security forces are engaged elsewhere.

One source confirmed last night: "There has definitely been a
decrease in the price of opium in Afghanistan in recent days. This
would happen either because people expect an increase in supply or a
decrease in demand, and if there is one thing from Afghanistan which
is guaranteed to have an international demand, it is opium."

Afghanistan produced 75 per cent of the world's opium last year and
Mullah Omar's ban was seen as one of the few attempts by a pariah
regime to gain credit with the international community. Its
enforcement was ruthless and efficient. UN figures show that
Afghanistan's opium production was 4,600 tonnes in 1999, but this is
thought to have dropped to 100 tonnes this year.

The respite, however, may prove short-lived. One Western source said:
"The farmers have to decide by mid-October if they are going to
plant. The more we move into a campaign the more incentive they have
to cultivate poppies."

--