Latin America loses drug farming claim to fame

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United Nations officials announced this week that Afghanistan had elbowed Latin America aside to claim the record number of farmland acres used for drug cultivation.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime released its annual opium survey in Kabul, the Afghan capital, showing that the amount of Afghan land used for opium production now exceeds the combined total land used to cultivate coca, the source material for cocaine, in all of Latin America.

Michele Montas, a spokeswoman for the U.N. secretary-general, described the Afghan situation as ‘frightening,’ and added that UNODC director Antonio Maria Costa considered the situation grim but not hopeless.

Posted by Nicole Gaouette in Washington