Afghan opium poppy cultivation grows 30% in 2014 - Russian anti-drug chief

MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. A record 250,000 hectares of opium poppy were grown last year, a 30 percent increase compared with 2013, the head of Russia’s federal drug control service said on Monday. "The heroin issue hasn't gone anywhere. The cultivation scale of opium poppy in Afghanistan in 2014 grew to 250,000 hectares. Its harvest grew 30 percent," Viktor Ivanov told reporters. "And just a tiny amount of the heroin produced from this poppy is used in Afghanistan, while its major part comes to Russia, Europe, China, South Africa, and through African countries to the EU," Ivanov said. Through a militarized transit way, this destabilises the situation in a number of regions in the world, he said. According to the United Nations data, in 2013 Afghan farmers grew 209,000 hectares of opium poppy, compared with 193,000 hectares in 2007. Read more