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KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghanistan's opium production dropped dramatically this year partly because of new aggressive drug-fighting tactics in the country, a United Nations study found. According to the report from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, production dipped by 10 percent this year, while cultivation fell by 22 percent. "At a time of pessimism about the situation in Afghanistan, these results are a welcome piece of good news and demonstrate that progress is possible," said Antonio Maria Costa, the office's executive director. The United Nations notes that drugs originating in Afghanistan have "catastrophic consequences." "They fund the activities...

DORRIS, Calif. -- Agents from the Siskiyou County-Wide Narcotic Task Force were assisted by the California Department of Justice, Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol in the service of a search warrant at the Elm Motel in Dorris, California. Drug agents learned that a shipment of opium had been intercepted by U.S. Customs en route from Thailand on its way to the Elm Motel in Dorris on Highway 97, just south of the California Oregon border. The opium had been hidden in the hollow handles of broomsticks that were mixed in with baskets and bamboo items. Drug agents...

The Pentagon has put 50 of Afghanistan’s powerful opium barons on a “kill or capture” list, signalling a radical shift in tactics against the Taleban. The announcement came as the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, admitted that the insurgency, nurtured by tens of millions of dollars from the country’s vast poppy fields, now held the upper hand. The existence of the “joint integrated prioritised target list” — a rogues’ gallery of drug lords who are earmarked for arrest or assassination — is revealed in an unpublished Senate report obtained yesterday by The Times. It was confirmed...

In dozens of mountain hamlets in this remote corner of Afghanistan, opium addiction has become so entrenched that whole families — from toddlers to old men — are addicts. From just one family years ago, at least half the people of Sarab, population 1,850, are now addicts. Afghanistan supplies nearly all the world's opium, the raw ingredient used to make heroin. "I am ashamed of what I have become," says Beg, an unwashed turban curled on his head. "I've lost my self-respect. I've lost my values. I take the food from this child to pay for my opium," he says,...

SHAHRAN, Afghanistan — For as long as anyone can remember, there was no need for paper money in this remote corner of the Hindu Kush. The common currency was what grew in everyone's backyard - opium. When children felt like buying candy, they ran into their father's fields and returned with a few grams of opium folded inside a leaf. Their mothers collected it in plastic bags, trading 18 grams for a meter of fabric or two liters of cooking oil. Even a visit to the barbershop could be settled in opium. But the economy of this village sputtered to...

Note: The following text is a quote: July 30, 2009 ANOTHER DEAD IMU DRUG RUNNER Both Reuters and AFP report the recent demise of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan activist Nemet Azizov in a firefight with Tajik forces in the Rasht valley. Mr. Azizov was allegedly involved in the production and/or trafficking of heroin produced from opium grown in nearby Afghanistan. Posted on 30 July 2009 @ 20:14 GMT

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 29 (UPI) -- The United States' top anti-drug agency will substantially boost its presence in Afghanistan to check opium trafficking, the Taliban's main revenue source. "One year ago, we had 13 personnel in Afghanistan working counternarcotics," Jay Fitzpatrick, the DEA's assistant regional director based in Kabul. "We're in the process of increasing the number of personnel to 81." The U.S. network reported the DEA also plans track the top 10 to 20 narcotics traffickers in Afghanistan with the help of Afghan authorities.

Commentary: WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- The outgoing NATO SACEUR, or supreme allied commander Europe, would gladly forgo more NATO troops to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan if allied countries dropped their caveats against their use in combat operations. Gen. John Craddock, the outgoing supremo, says these caveats "increase the risk to every service member deployed in Afghanistan and bring increased risk to mission success." They are also "a detriment to effective command and control, unity of effort and … command." NATO's International Security Assistance Force consists of 58,300 troops from 41 countries. But NATO's 28 member nations provide the...

Obama’s First Order: Don’t Hurt the Heroin byPaul L. Williams, Ph.D.thelastcrusade.org Obama's agenda; Narco-Nation Building Hey, guys, don’t pick the poppies. That’s the order from the Obama Administration to the 4,000 Marines presently engaged in Operation Khanjar or “Strike of the Sword,” an invasion of the Taliban infested Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. The Marines of Bravo’s Company 1st Platoon sleep beside groves of poppies Troops of the 2nd Platoon walk through the fields on strict orders not to swat the heavy opium bulbs. The Afghan farmers and laborers, who are engaged in scraping the resin from the bulbs, smile...

TRIESTE, Italy (Reuters) - Washington is to dramatically overhaul its Afghan anti-drug strategy, phasing out opium poppy eradication, the U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan told allies on Saturday. Richard Holbrooke, attending a G8 conference on stabilizing Afghanistan, also discussed efforts to support its August 20 election. Washington has nearly doubled its troops to combat a growing Taliban insurgency and provide security for the vote. "The Western policies against the opium crop, the poppy crop, have been a failure. They did not result in any damage to the Taliban, but they put farmers out of work," Holbrooke told Reuters after...

The United States is to change the way it deals with the massive poppy growing industry in Afghanistan. Instead of destroying the crops it will spend money encouraging Afghan farmers to grow different ones. US special envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke, at a G8 meeting in Italy, said current measures against poppy growers had been "a failure". The conference of foreign ministers in Trieste also called for credible elections in Afghanistan in August. Mr Holbrooke said that existing programmes of eradication had not reduced by one dollar the amount of money the Taliban earned from production. "Spraying the crops just...

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said. Lara Giddings, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, said the kangaroo-like marsupials were getting into poppy fields grown for medicine. She was reporting to a parliamentary hearing on security for poppy crops. Australia supplies about 50% of the world's legally-grown opium used to make morphine and other painkillers. We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles. Then they crash Lara Giddings,...

Wallabies are getting high on opium from poppy fields and flattening crops, an Australian official has said. The marsupials have been snacking on poppies growing in fields in Tasmania, the world's largest producer of legally-grown optium for medicines. Afterwards, they hop round in circles before crashing on top of the crops and trampling them to the ground. State attorney general Lara Giddings told a parliamentary hearing: "We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles. "Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that...

Stoned wallabies causing crop circles Tasmanian wallabies are getting stoned on the state's opium poppy crops and creating crop circles. Things are really hopping in Tasmania where wallabies are getting stoned on the state's opium poppy crops and creating crop circles. The wallabies are breaking into the poppy fields and making the circles while they're high. Rick Rockliff from Tasmanian Alkaloids says wildlife and livestock which eat the poppies are known to act weird, and he's told the Hobart Mercury there's been many stories about sheep eating the poppies and then walking around in circles. Tasmania is the world's largest...

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2009 – Afghan security forces, assisted by coalition forces, confiscated an opium cache and captured several armed enemy fighters in the southern province of Kandahar today and captured a Taliban commander in an earlier operation, military officials reported. In the Kandahar engagement, the security forces were attacked in the Chenartu Valley by enemy fighters with small-arms fire. The combined patrol returned fire and called in air support on the enemy positions. At the site, forces recovered 30 pounds of opium and captured several armed militants. The combined security forces are in the area conducting multi-day clearing operations,...

'Record' Afghanistan drugs bust International and Afghan troops have killed 60 militants and made a record drugs haul in an operation in southern Afghanistan, the US military has said.

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2009 – Afghan and coalition forces captured two drug traffickers, seized about a half ton of opium, and captured three other suspects in separate overnight operations in Afghanistan. In the Musa Qaleh district of Helmand province, Afghan forces, advised by coalition forces, detained the drug traffickers and opium early today. The combined forces found nearly 1,000 pounds of black-tar opium during a search of a suspected militant’s home. A suspected drug trafficker and an armed accomplice were found in the house and detained without resistance. The suspected trafficker is believed to have ties with people who use...

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2009 – Afghan forces, advised by coalition forces, confiscated 600 pounds of opium and killed seven armed militants last night during operations in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Prompted by local reports of Taliban activities in the area, the Afghan forces launched a search of compounds in a known insurgent safe haven and narcotics hub. The Afghan-led force found the opium, an AK-47 assault rifle with 1,000 rounds and remote-controlled bomb-making components during the search. The Afghan forces also found a trauma room fully stocked with medical supplies and ready to treat militant casualties....

LANCASTER [CALIFORNIA] - Poppies popped up Wednesday at Lancaster City Park. So did painted antelopes and ferocious-looking dinosaurs - all in preparation for this weekend's annual California Poppy Festival. "We've been planting poppy plants all week and will be planting about 500 plants today," said Jeff Campbell, recreation supervisor for Lancaster's Parks, Recreation and Arts Department. "And we'll probably be planting through Friday. "The tents for the festival started going up Monday and have been going up non-stop every day so far this week," Campbell said. "All told, we'll have about 175 tents. In the northwest area of the festival...

WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- Attempting to eradicate poppy fields in Afghanistan is counterproductive, the United States' top envoy to the country says. Even though U.S. President Barack Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan calls for continued efforts to destroy the flowers used in the production of opium, Richard Holbrooke, the administration's coordinator of Afghanistan policy, called the practice "wasteful and ineffective" at a Brussels forum this month, USA Today reported Tuesday. Moves to eradicate poppies have been "pushing farmers into the Taliban's hands" because it destroys their livelihoods, Holbrooke reportedly said.

Can pomegranates cut into the Talibans opium trade in Afghanistan? When I first heard this proposal, I thought it was a crazy idea. Now, I am not so sure. Pomegranates yield more then $2000 per acre than opium. The supporters of this proposal claim pomegranate farmers never return to growing opium. The downside is pomegranates are more difficult to transport in dangerous Afghanistan and the trees take 4~5 years to mature. The US Government is putting $12 million into publicizing the proposal. Video is here.

DUSHANBE, Tajik Drug Control Agency (DCA) chief Rustam Nazarov noted that according to the Afghan counternarcotics service, 7,700 tons of raw opium were produced in Afghanistan last year, 500 tons fewer than 2007. He noted that last year showed an increase in narcotics production in Afghan provinces not controlled by the central government. “The provinces uncontrolled by the central government now produce some 80 percent of Afghan narcotics,” said the Tajik drug control chief, “18 provinces in Afghanistan have been announced narcotics-free; three of these – Takhor, Balkh and Kunduz - border Tajikistan.” He added that production of narcotics in...

1st Video of N. Korean Poppy Fields Unveiled DECEMBER 09, 2008 07:45 The first video clip on poppies growing en masse in a district controlled by the North Korean military in Taehung, South Pyongan Province, was unveiled yesterday. The Citizens Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees, a Seoul-based civic group, released the 20-minute clip at a digital video exhibition for North Korean human rights at Gwanggyo Gallery in Seoul, saying it confirms the North Korean military-led “white bellflower project” as claimed by North Korean defectors. The clip, which the group said it received from a spy...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Under a wine-colored burqa that flows from the crown of her head down over her body, Khadija sat cross-legged, spinning the wheel of a sewing machine and methodically stitching a seam into a flowing stream of white cloth. The 42-year-old mother of five was working to burn off a consuming and deadly habit that again is blooming across Afghanistan. Until a few days ago, Khadija, who like many Afghans uses only one name, slipped opium in her tea twice a day to combat depression. It was," Khadija said, "more important than food." Just as the Taliban have...

On March 1, 2006, I met Hamid Karzai for the first time. It was a clear, crisp day in Kabul. The Afghan president joined President and Mrs. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Ambassador Ronald Neumann to dedicate the new United States Embassy. He thanked the American people for all they had done for Afghanistan. I was a senior counternarcotics official recently arrived in a country that supplied 90 percent of the world’s heroin. I took to heart Karzai’s strong statements against the Afghan drug trade. That was my first mistake. Over the next two years I would discover...

New York, NY (AHN) - Taliban militants have earned an estimated $100 million from "taxes" generated from farmers growing poppies for the opium trade in Afghanistan, the head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said Tuesday. Acosta said the earnings do not include money coming from other opium-related activities. He said the extremists may have earned more in protecting laboratories and the transport of the illegal drug. He told the BBC, "One is protection to laboratories and the other is that the insurgents offer protection to cargo, moving opium across the border." The U.N. estimates...

THE world's biggest drug bust has been executed by narcotics agents in Afghanistan, who say they uncovered 236 tonnes of hashish hidden in trenches in the south of the country. The massive haul, found in the southern province of Kandahar on Monday, was worth more than $US400 million ($426 million) and would have netted the Taliban about $US14 million in profits, NATO officials said yesterday. It weighed as much as 30 double-decker London buses. "To our knowledge, this was the biggest drug seizure in the world," said Afghanistan's deputy interior minister Abdul Hadi Khalid. He said the drugs were found...

Afghan farmers hope to capitalise on soaring food costs by growing wheat instead of poppy crops, with the fall in heroin prices further fuelling the switch. The price of a tonne of wheat in Afghanistan has almost trebled this year, causing acute food shortages. A changeover of crops has begun in key agricultural regions, said Tekeste Tekie, country representative for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. He said a significant increase in wheat crops is expected from next year's harvest. "The high price of commodities has encouraged farmers to switch from poppy cultivation to wheat. In fact, we are already...

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2008 – The NATO International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has made significant progress in the country despite the command being “under-resourced,” the alliance’s top officer in the country said today. In a conference call with defense experts from his headquarters in the Afghan capital of Kabul, U.S. Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill also said opium poppy cultivation continues to be a major threat to Afghanistan. “In some portions of the country right now, mostly in the south, the cultivation of poppy is a far greater threat to the Afghan government -- to the security and stability...

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- U.S. Marines are crossing the sands of southern Afghanistan for the first time in years, providing a boost to a NATO coalition that is growing but still short on manpower. They hope to retake the 10 percent of Afghanistan the Taliban holds. Some of the Marines that make up the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit helped to tame a thriving insurgency in western Iraq. Some 3,500 newly arrived troops hope to move into regions of Afghanistan now controlled by the Taliban. The Marines are working alongside British forces in Helmand province _ the world's largest opium-poppy region...

TALEBAN warlords are using cash from Afghanistan's bumper opium poppy crop to try to buy shoulder-launched ground-to-air missiles, the country's anti- narcotics tsar has warned. The surface-to-air missiles played a key role in driving out Soviet troops in the 1980s because they let mujahideen fighters shoot down Russian helicopters. Military commanders fear that such attacks could paralyse current Nato operations. Afghanistan's counter-narcotics minister, General Khodaidad, said the Taleban was busily scouring illegal arms markets for better anti-aircraft weapons. He said: "They are trying to get weapons to shoot down helicopters. They are trying to get ground-to-air missiles and they are...

Villagers in remote areas of Badakhshan Province, north-eastern Afghanistan, have been using opium as a substitute for medicine for years. They are oblivious to the harm it can do to their health. There is no official data about the number of drug addicts in Badakhshan. However, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) says one million people are addicted to drugs there, 45,000 of whom are women. This video short shows a women’s opium smoking session in the village of Jukhan, tucked away in mountainous Badakhshan. While efforts are being made to rehabilitate drug addicts in the village,...

Southern provinces are the source of most Afghan poppy production Opium poppy production in Afghanistan reached another record high last year and Kabul must do more to stop it, a US State Department report says.The report says that the poppy cultivation helps Taleban insurgents obtain money and weapons. The drug trade hinders progress towards economic stability and democracy, the report adds. Afghanistan grows nearly all of the world's opium poppy crop in an illegal trade worth billions of dollars. "Eliminating narcotics cultivation and trafficking in Afghanistan will require a long-term national and international commitment," said the State Department. "The...

To be a "good" Muslim References -  'Palestinian' child abuse -  Evil 'Joy' -  'Blessing' Hitler -  Mourning the wicked -  Australia - Muslim land -  Jihad on all Buddhists -  Spain - Muslim land -  Europe - Muslim land -  Arabs DON'T care about 'Palestinians' -  72 virgins - Loyalty -  'Pallywood' -  (use of) Ambulances for terror -  (use of) Women for terror -  Human Shields -  Middle east background -  September 11 terror plot on London -  Myth on: 'Terrorists are desperate' -  Beheadings -  Ilan Halimi [an example of monsterous wild prolonged torture motivated by hate only] -  Muslims attacking Jews in France -  Ahmadinejad ' Islamic Hitler' -  Cutting -  'Honor killing' -  Jews & Christians as "Apes & Pigs"? - ...

It is this reporter's opinion that the Bush administration has decided not to destroy the opium crop in Afghanistan even though the president previously linked the Afghan drug trade directly to terrorism. Meanwhile, the Afghan opium poppy cultivation has exploded to a record high. The multibillion dollar trade, fueled by Taliban militants and corrupt officials in the Afghan Karzai government, is running rampant. Opium grows on 477,000 acres of land in Afghanistan. That’s a 17 percent increase over last year’s acreage. Afghanistan now accounts for 93 percent of the global production of opium which provides the raw material for heroin....

On Afghanistan’s main Jalalabad to Torkham road is Shaddle Bazaar, in eastern Nangarhar.This is one of Afghanistan’s biggest opium markets.Thousands of kilos are bought and sold every day. Tension is visible, there is shouting over prices and quality. There are big scales to weigh the opium - Gul Mohammad is counting out Pakistani rupees.He buys hundreds of kilos every day, the smell is everywhere. Vehicles come and go constantly. A man carries a bag of hundreds of thousands of Afghanis. The dealers all carry pistols.Customers bring opium packed secretly, they refer to it as maal. Abdullah Jan: “I left at...

I've heard the question asked repeatedly. How is Al Qaeda, which is supposedly relegated to living in caves in stone-age conditions able to create state of the art video documentaries that rival those produced by TV networks and news channels? In other words, where is the money coming from? In the past much of the seed money used to finance Bin Laden's operations came from his personal fortune. But with all of the money controls slammed into place six years ago after the 9/11 attacks, that money has been for all intents and purposes untouchable. Yet this year Al Qaeda's...

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 27: Opium production in Afghanistan has hit a record $3 billion this year, accounting for more than 90 per cent of the world’s illegal output, a United Nations report said on Monday. The production concentrated mainly in the strife-torn south of the country, where the Taliban, who once banned poppy cultivation, now profited from the drug trade, the report alleged. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) showed that the area under opium cultivation rose to 193,000 hectares from 165,000 in 2006, while the harvest soared by more than a third to 8,200 tons from 6,100...

NEW YORK: The United Nations is to release figures for drug production in Afghanistan that will show another reverse for the British-led effort to control the drug trade. The Daily Telegraph understands that annual production is expected to have risen by 18 per cent to about 7,200 tons - the sixth consecutive rise since 2001. That compares to 6,100 tons last year and 4,200 in 2004 and the increase includes another surge in production in Helmand province, which now produces more than half of the total opium for the country. The New York Times reported that production in Helmand, which...

America and her quasi-backboned "allies" have a huge problem that grows by the day. Expectedly, there are as many analyses of our problem as there are "experts" to tell us what to think. A deluge of Western analysts have their diverse expert opinions regarding the "Mullah Problem" and what do about it. Some strategists advocate a military solution that ranges from full invasion of Iran to selective bombardment of its burgeoning nuclear centers and related facilities. Others are proponents of imposing economic sanctions of various types and severity. Still others feel that we simply have to learn to live with...

Opium production in Afghanistan is soaring out of control, the annual UN report on illegal drugs says. The World Drug Report says more than 90% of illegal opium, which is used to make heroin, comes from Afghanistan. It says cultivation of opium poppies increased dramatically in the country, despite the presence of more than 30,000 international troops there.

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2007 – The problems plaguing the Afghan government cannot be taken on without taking on the problem of poppy production, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan told Pentagon reporters in a teleconference today. Although he’s not suggesting changing the charter of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill said coalition forces can likely work within the eight pillars of the Afghan National Strategy for Counternarcotics to help fight against the opium cultivation in the country. “Poppy is a defining characteristic for this country at present,” McNeill said. “And it’s a negative...

Something strange is going on in the global opium market, and it could spell trouble. Annual demand for opium is about 4,500 tons. Last year a record 6,100 tons were produced in Afghanistan alone. That country's production is 30 percent more than total world demand. Heroin prices should, in theory, be plummeting. But they are not. So what is going on? Opium, unlike cocaine, has a long shelf life and can be stored as a form of saving, a source of liquidity and as collateral for credit... So where is it? I fear there may be a more sinister explanation...

Afghanistan's 2007 opium poppy cultivation could expand again after last year's record crop, the U.N. drug agency said Monday, underlining the weakness of an international-backed drive against the country's booming narcotics trade. The world body's Office on Drugs and Crime predicted an increase in a string of provinces, including southern Helmand — Afghanistan's largest poppy-growing region and an area wracked by growing Taliban attacks. In a report released Monday, the office said a recent U.N. survey found growing evidence that the drug trade flourished in regions with poor security. "This winter survey suggests that opium cultivation in Afghanistan in 2007...

Intense American pressure has failed to persuade President Karzai to start chemically spraying Afghanistan’s opium poppy crop in an attempt to cripple the heroin trade.After several days of high-level talks in Kabul, it was announced yesterday that there would be no spraying of this year’s crop, due to be harvested in two months. Mr Karzai has promised that if other, less controversial methods of eradication — notably sending in labourers with sticks to beat the heads off the poppies — fail to have a substantial impact on the harvest, he will turn to herbicide next year, although he has ruled...

Opium production in Afghanistan, which provides more than 90 percent of the world's heroin, broke all records in 2006, reaching a historic high despite ongoing U.S.-sponsored eradication efforts, the Bush administration reported yesterday. In addition to a 26 percent production increase over past year -- for a total of 5,644 metric tons -- the amount of land under cultivation in opium poppies grew by 61 percent. Cultivation in the two main production provinces, Helmand in the southwest and Oruzgan in central Afghanistan, was up by 132 percent.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) - With profits from this spring's record opium crop fueling a broad Taliban offensive, Afghan authorities say they are considering a once unthinkable way to deal with the scourge: spraying poppy fields with herbicide. Afghans including President Hamid Karzai are deeply opposed to spraying the crop. After nearly three decades of war, Western science and assurances can do little to assuage their fears of chemicals being dropped from airplanes. But U.S. officials in Kabul and Washington are pushing for it. And on Thursday the country's top drug enforcement official said he would contemplate spraying opium crops -...

AS if there hadn’t been enough bad news from Afghanistan of late, now the country’s drug dependency is back in the headlines. On Sept. 2, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that the shattered country is now producing 92 percent of the world’s supply of illegal opium, up from 87 percent in 2004. This deplorable new record will not be reversed by more belligerent counternarcotics measures. Instead, America, NATO and the Afghan government must reform a vital but neglected institution: the local police. In 2004, for the first time in history, farmers in every...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 2 — Afghanistan’s opium harvest this year has reached the highest levels ever recorded, showing an increase of almost 50 percent from last year, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said Saturday in Kabul. He said the increase in cultivation was significantly fueled by the resurgence of Taliban rebels in the south, the country’s prime opium growing region. As the insurgents have stepped up attacks, they have also encouraged and profited from the drug trade, promising protection to growers if they expanded their opium operations. “This year’s harvest...

WASHINGTON - The U.S.-backed strategy to fight Afghanistan's massive drug trade has been unsuccessful in stemming opium cultivation, which is expected to hit record levels this year, a senior U.S. official said Thursday. "It's bad news and we need to improve it," said Thomas Schweich, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for international narcotics. "But we don't feel it's a hopeless situation, and we don't think the overall strategy is the wrong strategy." Schweich spoke to reporters as Western officials in Afghanistan were forecasting a possible 40 percent increase this year in land under opium poppy cultivation, despite hundreds of...