Heroine nets $65 billion annually
About 15 million people around the world use heroin, opium or morphine, fueling a $65 billion market, warned Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The trade is fueling terrorism and insurgencies: The Taliban raised between $450 million and $600 million in the past four years by “taxing” opium farmers and traffickers, he says in a new report. Not all the money is going into the pockets of rebels or full-time drug dealers — some Afghan officials are making money off the trade as well. “The Afghan drug economy generates several hundred million dollars per year into evil hands — some with black turbans, some with white collars,” Costa says. And the problem is spreading. Drug money is now funding insurgencies in Central Asia, which has huge energy reserves, Costa says.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/21/un.heroin.trade/index.html
