Statistics

· 31, 889, 923 people live in Afghanistan (as of 2003)
· 80% of the Afghan population are involved in agriculture, although, only 12% of Afghan land is ariable
· 53% live below the poverty line
· 72% are illiterate
· 6% grow opium, leaving roughly 1.5 million people who cannot support their families if opium is eradicated.


additional facts about Afghanistan: CIA: The World Factbook



The graph above shows the increasing rate of opium production.


Most of Afghanistan's opium comes from the South and East provinces.


The total number of legal exports shown to have decreased probably because most of the Opium has gone to underground market exports. Regulating the trade by making it legal would reduce illicit activities by legally manufactuing opium for medical purposes.
CITATIONS

Text:
1 Carpenter, Ted Galen and Ian Vazquez. "The International War on Drugs." CATO Institute. 8 February 2008.
<http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb109/hb_109-60.pdf>

Images:
Two opium poppies with cultivator nearby. Masood, Ahmad. 2007. Afghan Opium Production Doubles in Two Years: UN. ABC News. 12 May 2008 <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/28/2017714.htm>.

Farmer in Opium Field: Guttenfelder, David. 2007. Afghan Opium Output At Record High. National Geographic. 12 May 2008
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/photogalleries/afghanistan-pictures/photo2.html>.

Graphs:
United Nations. Office on Drugs and Crime. The Opium Economy in Afghanistan An International Problem. Jan. 2003. 8 Feb. 2008 <http://www.unodc.org/pdf/publications/afg_opium_economy_www.pdf>.





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