Government figures show that Afghanistan cultivated poppy on 328,000 hectares of land last year while the amount was at least 20,000 hectares of land in 2016. 

Afghanistan produced at least 9,000 tons of drugs worth over $80 million from its poppy fields last year while it was 4,800 tons in 2016.

Statistics given by the Ministry of Counter Narcotics this week show that Afghanistan annually produces 80 percent of opium used in the world.

Afghan Minister of Counter Narcotics Salamat Azimi has said that “Afghanistan is world’s largest producer of opium in the world”.

In this episode of Goftman, host Partaw Naderi discusses the topic with following guests: 

•    Jawed Ahmad Qayem, deputy coordinator at the Ministry of Counter Narcotics

•    Abdul Khalil Bakhtiar, deputy interior minister for counter narcotics 

•    Shahpoor Yusuf, deputy head of Drug Demand Reduction program in Ministry of Public Health 

•    Daud Rawesh, a lecturer at Kabul University