Afghans No Longer Lead in Opium

Myanmar is once again the world’s top opium producer because of a sharp drop in production of the drug in Afghanistan, according to the latest U.S. government survey.

Myanmar overtook Afghanistan, which had been the No. 1 opium producer for the last three years, despite having its smallest opium harvest since the mid-1980s this year, the survey showed. Opium is used to make heroin.

Myanmar produced an estimated 950 tons of opium in 2001, down from about 1,200 tons in 2000, a United Nations official said Thursday, citing the State Department’s “Annual Survey of Opium Cultivation and Production.”

The U.S. survey attributed Myanmar’s drop in production to poor weather and to drug eradication efforts.

But Myanmar’s drop in production was dwarfed by Afghanistan’s. The latter, war-ravaged nation produced only about 200 tons of opium in 2001, compared with about 3,650 tons in 2000, according to the U.N. International Drug Control Program.

Afghanistan’s opium yield dropped this year because of a successful ban on poppy growing by its former Taliban rulers, who have been ousted by U.S.-led forces in the war against terror.

According to U.S. figures, Afghanistan overtook Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, as the top producer in 1998 and last year was responsible for 72% of the global supply.