*KABUL – Despite United States spending $8.9 billion on drugs control,Opium production in Afghanistan hit highest level.*
*Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) claimsthat the US has spent $8.94 billion to fight illicit drugs in Afghanistansince 2002. *
“As of September 30, 2019, the United States has appropriated $8.94 billionfor counternarcotics (CN) efforts in Afghanistan since FY 2002,” SIGAR saidin the report.Based on the SIGAR report (citing UNODC), the value of illicit drugs wasgreater than the value of the country’s legally exported products in 2017and 2018.
The report states that although Afghanistan’s area under opium-poppycultivation fell by 20% in 2018, it remained at the second-highest levelsince the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) began monitoringit in 1994.
Also, according to the report the recent decrease was due to a lack of rainthat affected growing, rather than counter-narcotics efforts.
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Opium-poppy cultivation has become a crucial element in the livelihood ofmany Afghans. Significantly, more Afghans are engaged in cultivation, workin poppy fields, or are involved in the illicit drug trade, than the totalnumber of personnel in the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces(ANDSF), TOLO News has reported.
But the Afghan Ministry of Interior challenges the report.
