Afghanistan is largest producer of heroin's main ingredient opium and opium is nothing new in that part of the world being produced for centuries and used as a treatment in various diseases.

Ironically, it was only in Taliban era when the world saw a sharp decline in opium crop in Afghanistan.

But opium production has soared since 2001 and drug smugglers in Afghanistan claim they are "untouchable" because their bosses include cabinet-level officials in the NATO supported government. British officials suspect senior government insiders are involved in the drugs trade, but they have struggled to get the support from Mr Karzai, or the evidence, to arrest them.

However, cocaine is the 'favourite substance of choice' in the west and Latin America, particularly Colombia, is the world's leading producer of cocaine

The involvement of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in cocaine trafficking in Central America during the Reagan Administration as part of the Contra war in Nicaragua has been the subject of several official and journalistic investigations since the mid-1980s - examining the allegations that the CIA was using drug dealers in its controversial covert operation to bring down the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua

Former CIA agent David MacMichael explained the inherent relationship between CIA activity in Latin America and drug trafficking
"Once you set up a covert operation to supply arms and money, it's very difficult to separate it from the kind of people who are involved in other forms of trade, and especially drugs. There is a limited number of planes, pilots and landing strips. By developing a system for supply of the Contras, the US built a road for drug supply into the US."

By all means make the sale of drugs in the UK a major offence with maximum punishment for the misery they cause
- but do NOT, as Barbara Harris advocates, criminalize the user or coerce them into sterilization (or less 'safe' forms of contraception) while ignoring causes and treatment