"The vast increase in opium poppy farming in Afghanistan is indicative of an inability to grasp a basic law of economics."

Simon Jenkins explains all.

John Kunze - 8/29/2007

Never fear. The U.S. has a plan, as explained in a Reuters story today:

'The United States will double
efforts against Afghanistan's drug output and plans to destroy
the industry, a U.S. diplomat said, days after the UN said the
country produced 93 percent of the world's poppy this year.
'U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Thomas A.
Schweich, said his government will take action next year.
'"Most of the poppy in Afghanistan is now grown by relatively
wealthy farmers, corrupt officials and large land owners and
opportunists who have turned down alternatives that have been
given to them," he told reporters in Kabul on Wednesday.
'"These people will find that we will be there this spring to
eradicate their crops,"
"Simply hitting the farmers, no matter how wealthy they are
is not enough. You have get the traffickers, and the United
States will double the amount of resources...into the eradication
activity in the next 12 months," he added.'