international adviser with the Poppy Elimination Programme

An international adviser with the Poppy Elimination Programme in Kandahar, Afghanistan and consultant with the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) pleaded innocent against possessing 0.6 grammes of hashish for personal use before a court on Tuesday.
The Public Prosecution had charged the Canadian suspect, H.W., with smuggling and possessing 0.6 grammes of hashish and two poppy seeds for personal use besides consuming hashish.

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Nato dumps Afghan opium adverts

BBC News - Nato forces in Afghanistan say that they have withdrawn paid adverts on a radio station which implied it was acceptable to grow opium poppies.
A Nato spokesman told the BBC that the advert was "ambiguously worded".
The decision followed complaints from the Afghan government and the UN that the alliance was appearing to condone the illicit crop.
The advert was paid for by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and aired in Helmand province.
The province in the south is one of the largest opium-producing area in the world and the centre of a large Nato-led anti-Taleban offensive.

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US under fire over Afghan poppy plan

The US is proceeding with plans for a big crop-spraying programme to destroy opium poppies in Afghanistan, in spite of resistance from the government of President Hamid Karzai and objections from some senior US military officers who fear it will fuel the Taliban insurgency.
A US delegation will soon leave for Kabul to persuade Mr Karzai that glycophate, a herbicide that is widely applied by US farmers, is safe to use and that trial ground-spraying should begin for the first time since the US ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.

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Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppy crop

Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppy crop set another record this season, despite intensified eradication efforts, the American ambassador said Tuesday.
Ambassador William Wood said preliminary data show that Afghan farmers harvested 457,135 acres of opium poppies this year, compared to 407,715 acres last year. The growing industry fuels the Taliban, crime, addiction and government corruption.
Government-led eradication efforts destroyed about 49,420 acres of poppies this year, a "disappointing" outcome, Wood told reporters at his private residence overlooking Kabul.
Wood said he strongly supports forced eradication, alluding to U.S.-led poppy-spraying in Colombia. But he said there is "not yet an international consensus" on the practice.

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