Druglord influence continues to rise in Afghanistan

We were seeing reports about this three years ago, and even then it was bad.  But a new report submitted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime found that Afghanistan's drug economy is soaring out of control -- doubling over the last two years:

Afghanistan's opium production has doubled in two years, reaching a newhigh in 2007, with the country almost the exclusive supplier of theworld's deadliest drug, the United Nations  announced Monday.

Production was estimated to have jumped 34 percent this year over lastwith the number of heroin labs also increasing, the UN Office on Drugsand Crime said in its Annual Opium Survey.

The southern province of Helmand had meanwhile become the world'sbiggest source of illicit drugs, surpassing the output of entirecountries.

Earlier this summer, I reported on the severity of the disaster in Helmand Province.  In that province alone, three times as much opium is produced than in Burma, the second worst opium country.  Of course, the US only has 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, so it is unmistakably difficult to do anything about it right now.