Foreign aid money has failed to deliver enough or at the right time which means that the Karzai government has little means to combat the problem. There's obviously plenty of profit in the opium business and local police who are in the field are poorly paid and ripe for corruption. Local farmers have the option to grow cotton, fruit or vegetables which have very limited markets and make little money or they can grow opium, knowing that there is a strong market though with risks.
Late last year, U.N. experts reported that Afghan farmers had grown record levels of poppy in 2004, with the amount of land dedicated to poppies reaching 323,570 acres -- a two-thirds increase over 2003. Afghan opium poppies were used to produce nearly 90 percent of the world's heroin, they said.The west has raised some money but it's just too little and too late. The limited funds that are arriving are just arriving and the poppy farmers are preparing for the next planting season. As long as the west keeps buying and fails to deliver proper support for fighting this battle, the problem will not go away.
