Poppy Growth Rate in Badakhshan Region is Down

PANSHAR, AFGHANISTAN - MAY 29: A farmer holds a poppy flower that he picked May 29, 2005 in Panshar, in the Badakhshan district in the northeast of Afghanistan. Abdul has been growing poppies for five years and receives 50% of the harvest. Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of opium and heroin, launched the first survey of drug abuse among its own population. The country produced 90 percent of the world's opium which is refined into heroin for sale in many parts of the world. U.N. experts have warned that the country is turning into a "narco-state" less than four years after the fall of the Taliban. President Hamid Karzai recently came under fire during his visit with President Bush for his record in fighting the war on drugs. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)