United States envoy Richard Holbrooke says the US is planning a radical revision of its anti-drugs strategy in Afghanistan. He said the US will now cease its attempts to destroy the poppy harvest and concentrate instead on intercepting drugs and drug traffickers.

Mr Holbrooke, who is the US envoy to Afghanistan, said attempts to destroy the poppy fields had not only proved a waste of money but had also driven Afghan poppy farmers into the arms of the Taliban.
 
He added that despite US efforts to destroy the poppy harvest, the Taliban still earned just as much money as they did from the country’s heroin trade as they did before the US 2001 invasion and that Afghanistan’s drug output had actually increased since then.
 
Afghanistan supplies more than 90 percent of the world's heroin.
 
 
Photo by Zunami (flickr)