Who could forget those early days, when the Bush administration patted itself on the back, telling anyone who would listen that besides shutting down the Taliban and catching bin Laden, the Taliban business of growing and selling opium would be shut down and women would all be free? Those were the days when talk was cheap, ideas were big and the media preached every word of Dear Leader. Fast-forward a few years and the realities on the ground are every so slightly different. Afghanistan gets worse by the day.
In 2006, Afghanistan accounted for 92 percent of global illicit opium production, up from 70 percent in 2000 and 52 percent a decade earlier. The higher yields in Afghanistan brought global opium production to a record high of nearly 7,300 tons last year, a 43 percent increase over 2005.
The area under opium poppy cultivation in the country has also expanded, from nearly 257,000 acres in 2005 to more than 407,000 acres in 2006 — an increase of about 59 percent.
"This is the largest area under opium poppy cultivation ever recorded in Afghanistan," the report said, noting that two-thirds of cultivation was concentrated in the country's south.
