By 2009, it had dropped to 1,100 hectares, the lowest level of poppy cultivation recorded in Colombia, according to U.S. Poppy cultivation and heroin production have been decreasing steadily in Colombia since 2001, when cultivation reached a peak of 6,540 hectares. Further, drug-related corruption continues to undercut international reconstruction efforts and good governance, as government officials abuse their positions by benefiting financially from the drug trade. In Afghanistan, there is a symbiotic relationship between narco-traffickers and the insurgency, as narcotics traffickers provide revenue and arms to the insurgency, while insurgents provide protection to growers and traffickers to prevent the government from interfering with their activities. An increasingly large portion of Afghanistan's raw opium crop is processed into heroin and morphine base by drug labs inside Afghanistan, reducing its bulk by a factor of 10 to 1, and thereby facilitating its movement to markets in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East through Iran, Pakistan, and Central Asia.
In 2010, cultivation continued to be concentrated in Afghanistan’s south and west, with 93 percent of the crop confined to just five provinces. Since 2007, cultivation and potential opium production in Afghanistan declined for a third consecutive year in a row (according to UN and USG estimates). During the 1990's, Latin America evolved as the primary supplier of heroin to the United States, with Mexican heroin most prevalent west of the Mississippi and Colombian heroin most prevalent east of it. In 2010, Afghanistan, as the world's largest opium supplier, accounted for nearly 80 percent of the world's opium, according to UN estimates. However, over the last decade, opium production in the Golden Triangle has declined while cultivation and production rates in Southwest Asia have increased considerably. Historically, most of the world's illicit opium for heroin has been grown in the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia. The routes, volume, and methods for the transshipment of heroin vary between the producing regions. While an undetermined amount of the opium is consumed in the producing regions, a significant amount of the drug is converted to heroin and sent to Europe, Russia, Central Asia, China, and North America. Opium production occurs in three source regions – Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and Latin America – creating a worldwide problem. Efforts to reduce domestic heroin availability face significant challenges. Foreign sources of opium are responsible for the entire supply of heroin consumed in the U.S.
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