Afghanistan's record high poppy yield is a threat to Central Asia

An increase in the number of opium poppy plantations and illegal laboratories producing opium in Afghanistan is a serious threat to Central Asia, Roberto Arbitrio, the program co-ordinator in Central Asia for the United Nations Drug Control Programme /UNDCP/, announced in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on Tuesday.

He said this year's yield of opium poppy could reach 4,000 tons, a much larger amount than in the previous years. According to his words, the pressure of the drug traffic was bound to fall on Tajikistan, a country sharing the longest border with Afghanistan, and also on Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, via which drugs make their way to Europe.