The World - News from Jan. 1, 1987

The United States will modify helicopters and train pilots to spray opium-producing poppy fields in northwest Pakistan, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development said. The United States will adapt eight helicopters sent to Pakistan from Vietnam in 1973 so they can spray chemicals to destroy the illegal poppy crop in544499813McPherson told a news conference in Islamabad. He said American pilots would help train Pakistanis to wipe out what he called the source of most of the heroin reaching North America.U.S. drug enforcement officials say the fields produced most of the 150 tons of opium smuggled from Pakistan last year. They said the 1985 poppy crop was triple that of 1984.