Afghanistan poppy

The poppy crop in Afghanistan set a record in 2014, 224,000 hectares (hectare = approx. 3 acres).

The UNODC’s (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) report on the 2015 crop comes out in October and shows a 19% decline in planting of the $60 billion crop. A week later, the President announces a 5,000 troop re-deployment into Afghanistan: Guess where those troops were deployed?

Afghanistan provides 93% of the planet’s poppy and our DEA tells us only 4% of America’s heroin comes from “SW Asia”. Hardly creditable when you consider the US, 5% of the world population, uses 60% of the illegal drugs produced on the planet.

A gram of heroin at North Salem High School in 2001 cost $400, this morning a gram of heroin cost $80 for a regular user, all users become regular users.

The United States maintains 6 permanent military bases in Afghanistan.