UN: Huge rise in Afghan opium production

Afghanistan produced dramatically more opium in 2006, increasing its yield by roughly 49%from a year earlier and pushing global opium production to a new record high, a UN report said today.

Opium production increased from 4,100 tonnes in 2005 to 6,100 tonnes in 2006, according to the 2007 World Drug Report released by the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Opium is the main ingredient for heroin.