World Politics ReviewOn June 26, at a gathering in Kabul marking World Counter
Narcotics Day, the mood was somber. Gone was the positive
spin of last year's event, when Afghanistan's minister of
counternarcotics, Zarar Ahmad Moqbil, proudly announced
that poppy cultivation had been reduced by up to 50 percent and that 23 out of 34 provinces were
then free from poppy cultivation. Sadly, the significant decrease in opium production last year has
since been attributed to a convergence of environmental and climatic variables
(/articles/5577/afghanistans-poppy-blight-could-mean-trouble-for-war-effort) (/articles/5577/afghanistans-poppy-blight-couldmean-
trouble-for-war-effort) that devastated the crops late in the season, not to effective counternarcotics
measures. According to the United Nations, Afghanistan remains the world's largest producer of
illicit opiates and cannabis resin, known as hashish
