Opium prices Soar

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/13/AR2011011306738_2.html?tid=wp_featuredstories&sid=ST2011011400552

"Most of the trafficking we see is in Kandahar, and we have no control there," Ahmadi said. "We have a lot of security checks at the airports, with special scanners and equipment, but the VIPs and the organized crime people know how to avoid them."

While the use of hashish and opium is a traditional part of Afghan society, experts say the introduction of heroin - especially by exiles returning from Iran - has brought crime, homelessness, disease and mental illness to the drug culture. 

"When we started here in 2002, it was hard to find a single drug user on the streets of Kabul. Now there are close to 1 million all over the country," said Tariq

"The price of opium is now seven times higher than wheat, and there is a $58 billion demand for narcotics, so our farmers have no disincentive to cultivate poppy," said Mohammed Azhar, deputy minister for counternarcotics. "We have gotten a lot of help, but it is not enough. Afghanistan is still producing 85 percent of the opium in the world, and it is still a dark stain on our name."

the value of Afghan opium skyrocketed from $29 per pound in 2009 to $77 per pound in 2010, fueling fears that production levels will soon follow upward.