11-24-2006, 10:56 AM
<b>Cocaine, heroin cheaper than ever in Europe: report </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->LISBON (Reuters) - Illegal drugs may be cheaper than ever before in Europe, with prices of heroin slumping 45 percent and cocaine down 22 percent over five years, according to the first Europe-wide report of its kind on drug prices.
The steep fall in heroin prices in 1999-2004 came as drug production in    Afghanistan surged so much after the fall of the Taliban that supply could now be exceeding global demand for heroin, threatening to spur more drug use.
Afghanistan accounts for about 90 percent of world production of opium - the raw material for heroin - and its production has soared since a U.S.-led invasion ousted the government of the Islamist Taliban in 2001.    NATO troops are currently battling a Taliban insurgency, which has been fueled by the drugs trade.
"Afghanistan is the key player in global heroin production and developments in the country have the potential to impact on the kind of drug problem we will face in Europe in the future," said Wolfgang Gotz, head of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), in a statement.
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Whats going on? Who is making money?
Pakistan Army or Mullahs ?
The steep fall in heroin prices in 1999-2004 came as drug production in    Afghanistan surged so much after the fall of the Taliban that supply could now be exceeding global demand for heroin, threatening to spur more drug use.
Afghanistan accounts for about 90 percent of world production of opium - the raw material for heroin - and its production has soared since a U.S.-led invasion ousted the government of the Islamist Taliban in 2001.    NATO troops are currently battling a Taliban insurgency, which has been fueled by the drugs trade.
"Afghanistan is the key player in global heroin production and developments in the country have the potential to impact on the kind of drug problem we will face in Europe in the future," said Wolfgang Gotz, head of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), in a statement.
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Whats going on? Who is making money?
Pakistan Army or Mullahs ?