MOSCOW. ( RIA Novosti political commentator...

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the area sown to opium poppy has increased this year by 59%, and reached 165,000 hectares against 100,000 hectares last year, while the gross opium harvest will amount to 6,100 tons.

Afghan experts maintain that this year opium will be exceedingly rich in morphine. A mere seven kilograms of raw opium will produce one kilogram of heroin.

This ratio is very rare. Usually it takes from 10 to 15 kilograms of opium to make this amount. According to UNOCD, last year's harvest - four thousand tons of raw opium - produced 400 tons of heroin. The current concentration of morphine in 6,100 tons of raw opium will make it possible to get more than 870 tons of heroin. This is a fantastic scale.

It is easy to imagine what amounts of first-grade heavy drug Afghanistan will supply to the European and Russian markets, especially considering that the time-tested system of opium harvesting, its procession into

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