MOSCOW, October 31 (RIA Novosti) — Afghanistan is rapidly turning into a narco-state, Russian Federal Drug Control Service Chairman Viktor Ivanov said Friday.
"Over three years, sown areas have increased from 138,000 ha to 209,000 ha; this year we expect the sown areas of opium poppy to increase to 250,000 ha. This will significantly exceed the sown areas of coca bushes in South America. Afghanistan is rapidly turning into a narco-state," Ivanov told reporters.
According to Ivanov, up to 150 billion individual doses are produced in Afghanistan on a yearly basis, which is 25 times more than the world's population. They replenish the stocks of heroin in Afghan territories located in close proximity to Russia. According to Ivanov, 3,000 ton of pure heroin have already been stocked in these areas.
"The heroine pressure on our country that comes from outside does not weaken and tends to increase. It is absolutely obvious that we are left one to one with the problem of mass production of potent, concentrated drugs, which, in our view, are the number one threat to Russia and Central Asian countries," Ivanov added.
According to estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, potential opium production in Afghanistan in 2013 reached 5,500 ton, which is an increase of 49 percent from 2012.
