Afghanistan, for last few decades, has not only been influenced by wars but by some other evils, as well. Among them opium cultivation, smuggling and its usage have been the most lethal ones. Poppy cultivation and smuggling have not only brought bad name to the nation but they at the same time have made its usage more feasible for the people.

Therefore, a lot of people are addicted to drugs in Afghanistan, including children and women. Unfortunately, many people use drugs as medicine; in the absence of enough medicine for their diseases, the drugs serve as tranquilizer and painkiller for them; therefore, they do not even realize that they are being caught in a quagmire before it is too late.

Apart from the threat of addiction, the poppy cultivation and its smuggling are linked with the networks of organized crime in the country that further extends to international mafia and drug dealing. It is now an open secret that poppy cultivation and smuggling have their strong backers in the international drug market and national authorities who appear to be guardians of the nation.

But one of the most alarming and unfortunate fact is that they have their links with the terrorist networks in the country. The growing insurgency and expanding networks of terrorism suggest that the terrorists have strong financial support and currently there are many reports that disclose the fact that the terrorist networks receive most of their funding from the same source.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) mentioned in its annual report (2011) that in the year 2011 the production of opium increased about 61 percent as compared to the year 2010. This increase is really very large while we keep in our mind the efforts that are reported to have been made in order to eradicate the menace.

According to the report, the poppy cultivation extended on 131,000 hectares of land in 2011, which marked 7 percent increase as compared to 2010. The basic reasons of the rise in production, according to the report, were the rise in price and the prevailing insecurity.

The report suggested that the price of dry opium had risen to 43 percent in the year and the total farm-gate income was set to increase by 133 percent to reach $1,407 million by the end of 2011. In the same regard the reports said, "Buoyed by higher speculative prices arising from volatile security conditions, the farm-gate income of opium farmers rose markedly." This is really a threatening situation. The rise in prices will further encourage the production and the country may not be able to come out of the clutches of this evil.

So, the menace of poppy cultivation is determined to influence the country in various ways. It, on one side, is making drugs available to a large number of people, who are both intentionally and unintentionally becoming addict to it and becoming responsible for giving birth to different social problems.

On the other hand, it is providing the fuel for insurgency as it is bound to benefit the terrorist networks in the country that largely depend on such sources of income after losing support from elsewhere. Government authorities in this regard have to get very much serious and try to take concrete steps to make sure that the production is reduced to a considerable extent and on the other hand try to facilitate the farmers and landowners the opportunity of growing alternate crops.

Moreover, the corruption at least in this particular case must not be tolerated, because the country is passing through a very crucial period of its history and in this period there is very small margin of mistakes.