un: afghan opium poppy cultivation up 18%

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AFGHAN_OPIUM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-11-20-06-55-07

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan efforts to stamp out opium poppy cultivation are failing because of high prices for the illicit crop, pushing farmers to grow 18 percent more in 2012 than last year, the U.N. said in a report released Tuesday.

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, the raw ingredient in heroin, providing about 80 percent of the global crop. Crop sales fund insurgents and criminal gangs in Afghanistan, making it difficult for the Afghan government to establish control in areas where the economy is driven by black-market opium sales.

Farmers planted 154,000 hectares of opium poppy in 2011, up from the 131,000 in 2011.

"An increase of 18 percent is a serious alarm signal. It is a wakeup call," said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan, which prepared the report along with the Afghan Counternarcotics Ministry. "We are again, with regard to figures, in parallel to the high peaks of 2008, 2007, 2006.

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. One of the many fascinating points made

in this funny video is that the poppy/opium trade is a big component of propping up most of the world's biggest banksters by laundering all those billions and billions of dollars. How many times have you seen articles right here about BofA or Chase paying some token fine for laundering drug money?

Anyone know what the price of heroin has been doing lately?

[xchrom]

2. +1