AFGHANISTAN / CANNABIS SURVEY
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STORY: AFGHANISTAN / CANNABIS SURVEY
TRT: 1:30
SOURCE: UNAMA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / DARI / NATS
DATELINE: 31 MARCH 2010, AFGHANISTAN / FILE
1. Wide shot, press conference
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Staffan de Mistura, Special Representative for Afghanistan, United Nations:
“The cannabis has been growing in many parts of this country in 17 out of 34 provinces and its producing, in theory, quite an income - $3,900 I understand while the opium production is $3,600.”
3. Cutaway, press conference
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean-Luc Lemahieu, Representative, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime:
“We are so much focused on the opium. We need to focus as well on the cannabis. It is a risk, a danger that we cannot neglect not only for the health situation of the population of Afghanistan.”
5. Cutaway, press conference
6. SOUNDBITE (Dari) Ibrahim Azhar, Deputy Minister of Planning of the Counter Narcotics Ministry, Afghanistan:
“What these figures tell us and what responsibility do we have in this regard, poppy is not only a problem for us but also a problem for the world and it has damaged our identity, dignity and reputation. Now cannabis is another calamity besides poppy for us. We can use these figures and findings from the cannabis survey to create a legal economy instead of an illegal for our farmers and train our national police and border police to stop the smuggling to our neighboring countries.”
7. Wide shot, press conference
FILE – DATE UNKNOWN, AFGHANISTAN
8. Various shots, poppy fields
Afghanistan, the world’s biggest producer of opium, is now also the global leader when it comes to the production of hashish, according to a new United Nations (UN) survey released today.
The first-ever Afghanistan Cannabis Survey, produced by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), stated that, while a precise estimate is not technically possible, an estimated 10,000 to 24,000 hectares of cannabis are grown in Afghanistan every year.
According to Staffan de Mistura, head of the UN mission in the country, cannabis is grown in 17 out of the 34 provinces in the country.
Afghanistan’s cannabis crop yields an estimated 145 kilograms per hectare of hashish, the resin produced from cannabis, as compared to around 40 kilograms per hectare in Morocco.
Jean-Luc Lemahieu from UNODC said that the focus should not only be on opium but also on cannabis production in the country.
Cannabis not only reaps a high return – $3,900 in gross income per hectare as compared to $3,600 from opium – but it is also cheap to harvest and process. It is three times cheaper to cultivate a hectare of cannabis in Afghanistan than a hectare of opium.
Afghanistan’s Deputy Minister of Planning of the Counter Narcotics Ministry said that the figures and findings from the survey can be used to train local police to prevent smuggling of illegal drugs to neighboring countries
The survey also shows that cannabis cultivation, like opium, is concentrated in the south of the country, in regions of instability, which marks a shift away from the cultivation in the north of the country. Two thirds of cannabis farmers also grew opium in 2009.