Afghan opium production increases, despite interventions

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Afghanistan's opium cultivation, responsible for 90 percent of the world's heroin supply, rose by seven percent in 2014.

With the end of the summer harvest, the Afghan Ministry of Counternarcotics and United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime released statistics Wednesday indicating Afghanistan had record levels of opium production. The increase was in part to pay for the Afghan presidential election, U.N. official Jean-Luc Lemahieu said.

"With the presidential election ongoing, there was a huge demand of funding and that funding is not available in the licit economy. That money has to come from somewhere, so they turned to the illicit economy."

The opium economy was eliminated in the 1990s, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, but militant groups across the country now participate in, and tax, opium production. Western countries have attempted to encourage the growth of replacement crops, such as wheat, fruit and saffron, but militant groups offer farmers fertilizer and cash advances. Opium harvests are faster to market and require less -- and less involved means of -- crops' storage and travel.

Andrey Avetisyan, former head of the U.N. drugs office, said he met with new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani top discuss the opium issue.

"He (Ghani) understood well that drug trafficking suffocates the normal economic development. We are quite optimistic. Ashraf Ghani is not a magician but at least Ashraf Ghani said all the right words, with a lot of passion," Avetisyan said.