Global Ganja Report

At the 53rd meeting of the UN Committee on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, which ended March 12, Russia blasted the US and NATO for their failure to halt drug trafficking from Afghanistan. Moscow's drug czar Victor Ivanov said at least 30,000 people died in Russia every year from heroin, 90% of it from Afghanistan. He blamed the Obama administration for ending a military drive to destroy opium poppy crops in Afghan fields.

In 2007, six years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, opium production in the war-ravaged country reached its highest level of 8,200 tons. In September 2009, the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime said Afghanistan was still producing 6,900 tons of opium per year, alone meeting global consumption. Russia reports that shipments of Afghan drugs through the North Caucasus increased eight times last year. (Pravda, March 12, Press TV, Feb. 28, BBC News, Feb. 27)