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Heroin production in Afghanistan hit new high last year

Heroin production in Afghanistan reached a new high last year despite global efforts to battle the menace, the UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said yesterday in its annual report.

The UN agency said Afghanistan produced an "exceptional quantity" of opium, at 8,200 tonnes, 34 percent more than in 2006.

The country now accounts for 93 percent of all opiates on the global market, the report said.

"The illegal cultivation of poppies for opium in Afghanistan ... has reached a deeply worrying level despite the efforts of the [Afghan] government and the help of the international community over the last five years," the Vienna-based organization said.

Poppy production was up 17 percent, covering 193,000 hectares with a corresponding rise in yields from 37kg per hectare to 42.5kg.

Last year's leap came on top of a 59 percent rise in the area given over to the plant over the previous 12 months.

By comparison, only 19,000 hectares were cleared of the flower over the same period, with the INCB stressing that Afghan heroin is distributed worldwide -- reaching an estimated 3.3 million addicts in Europe alone.

In other trends identified, Africa has emerged as a pivotal cocaine-route into Europe -- with the organization citing a "rapid growth in trafficking" amounting to between 200 tonnes and 300 tonnes from Latin America transiting through Africa last year.

Elsewhere, a 70 percent hike in the number of Internet sites distributing illegal medicine posed a "growing problem" for public health on a global level.

The INCB, however, noted a "stabilization" in cannabis use after years of growth.

Composed of 13 independent advisers -- doctors, pharmaceuticals and other experts -- the body was established in 1968 to monitor the implementation of UN drug control conventions.
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