A young boy and girl play in a field of poppies in Afghanistan (AP)
Afghan Opium, Al Qaeda, and the Drug War Story aired: Thursday, July 31, 2003
Afghanistan, the world's largest grower of opium, has produced another bumper crop this year. Warlords allied with the U.S., Taliban fighters, and Al Qaeda operatives are all offering prices for raw opium that poor Afghan farmers can't refuse, despite the best efforts of the Karzai government.
That's at the supply side. On the demand side, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says the demand for drugs worldwide is still climbing, albeit a more slowly than in past years.
To talk about the beginning of the drug food chain, we are joined from Islamabad, Pakistan by Owais Tohid, he is a stringer for the Christian Science Monitor and he recently traveled to Afghanistan and spoke with opium farmers.
