"Mystery Disease" Hits The Empire's Opium Crop In Afghanistan

Disease 'to cut Afghan opium by up to 70%'

"A mystery disease infecting opium poppies in Afghanistan could cut this year's illicit crop in some areas by up to 70 percent, an official said Sunday.
The disease has led authorities to expect a "significant" reduction in opium production this year, with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) saying this week that the output could fall by up to 25 percent.
Daud Daud, Afghanistan's deputy interior minister for counter-narcotics, said that "in some areas up to 70 percent of the crops have been destroyed" by the disease.
"We'll have a significant reduction" in the opium production "this year," Daud said, refusing to give further details, saying that an overall survey of this year's output was still under way.
Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, the raw material for making heroin, mainly in the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar in the south and Farah in southwest.
"Interestingly there is a natural disease that is infecting opium in five provinces," said Daud.
He could not confirm what disease had infected the crops but blamed it on an insect infestation. He said the disease was being investigated in government laboratories."

After being cooked up in Russian laboratories.