The Taliban is not the only threat facing Afghanistan. The rise in poppy cultivation places the country at risk of moving from narco-economy to narco-state, and as eradication efforts continue to prove wildly unsuccessful, the threat increases. Yet the reasons for poppy's growing influence in the country are not hard to determine.
Afghanistan: "Failure of Expectation" on Foreign Exchange
Published May 2, 2008
Spring marks the beginning of the fighting season in Afghanistan, and as Afghan and western forces prepare for the Taliban offensive, others will be preparing to battle the country's second greatest threat: poppy.
But eradicating Afghanistan's most prolific and illicit crop will be hampered by past missteps and what Afghan farmers perceive as a lack of understanding when it comes to the problems they face.
A video by Shaun McCanna and Lee Ann Nelson
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting / Flamingo Productions
This video aired on Foreign Exchange during the week of May 2, 2008.
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Shaun McCanna is an independent documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist. He has been working in Afghanistan the past three years, and his reporting stems from research conducted for his...
