another Sterling link: Iron Curtain unravelling "Judging by the international community's assessment of efforts so far, the battle against the narcotics trade in Afghanistan has made little or no headway.
In the spring, Hamid Karzai's interim government announced a poppy-eradication program under which farmers would be compensated $500 per acre for destroyed poppy. However, according to a recent report from UN experts in Kabul, a poppy farmer can earn an estimated $6,400 per acre of gross income by planting poppy. This figure was from past years; according to the "Tehran Times" of 20 August, the current income is closer to $14,000."