Opium in Afghanistan and the UN

According to a recent report by the UN, farmers in Afghanistan grew fewer opium poppy plants last year, while opium drug production also declined. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s “Afghan Opium Survey 2009” says opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan declined 22% and opium production went down 10% during the May 2008 to June 2009 planting cycle. Reasons for the reductions cited by the report include strong leadership by the provincial governor, more-aggressive counter-narcotics ops, terms of trade that are more favorable to legal crops, and the successful introduction of “food zones” that promote legal farming.br /While I rejoice that the opium crop is lower, there is no reason to believe much of what the UN says about anything. Remember the billions of dollars in bribes made under the UN supervised Oil-for-Food program with Iraq? This was the biggest piece of fraud in the history of the world and its head was—the son of the UN Secretary General. And this is totally typical of how the UN works. So the real question is, who was paid how much to write this report?