The United States has completed a military...

The U.S. most likely does not want to provoke the wrath of the Afghans, whose welfare largely depends on opium poppy plantations.

According to a recent report published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), although the area sown with opium poppy in Afghanistan has decreased from 193,000 in 2007 to 123,000 hectares in 2009, the production of drugs there has grown considerably since 2001 and now amounts to 7,500 metric tons of opium.

Heroin production is a major threat. Secret laboratories in the provinces of Badakhshan, Hilmand and Nangarhar annually produce more than 800 metric tons of heroin.

However, it is Russia that leads in the number of heroin-related deaths. The UNODC report says addicts in the Russian Federation now consume a staggering 75-80 tons of Afghan heroin a year, or 20% of Afghan heroin production.

Russians consume 3.5 times more heroin than users in the United States and Canada (approx. 20 tons) and nearly two times more than

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