Action pledged on Afghan drugs

The government has said it is doing its best to tackle the supply of drugs from Afghanistan.

Ministers made the pledge after a UN report highlighted the extent of illegal drug imports into the UK.

Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell insisted it would take time to deal with the problem of heroin supply.

The UN's International Narcotics Control Board reported on Wednesday that Britain had the highest rate of heroin seizures and the third largest number of heroin addicts in Europe last year.

Ecstasy use was also only higher in the Ireland and the Czech Republic. And UK cocaine consumption went up while it had stabilised on the continent.

The report repeated concerns that the government's reclassification of cannabis had sent a confusing a message.

But with 90 per cent of heroin used in the UK coming from Afghanistan, with opium production having increased by 20 times since the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001, ministers are under pressure to do more to help the post-war administration in the country clamp down on supply.

Last month foreign secretary Jack Straw promised to double aid to £52 million to counter narcotics programmes in the next year.

Time

Rammell insisted he was "not complacent".

He told the BBC: "I am not suggesting there isn't a real problem."

"All the evidence everywhere in the world suggests this is a problem that takes time to tackle."

However, he pointed to evidence that production levels are still not as high as other years under the Taliban, and that Afghanistan's regional governors have begun to reduce the level of opium planting.

"If we can build upon that, then I think the long-term change that we need will come about," the minister said.

"The key thing that needs to happen is to cut off the supply of drugs from the origin.

"Our comprehensive strategy within Afghanistan involves eradication, drug seizures - where 100 tonnes have been seized and 80 laboratories destroyed - significant arrests, and alternative livelihoods.

"Looking at the evidence for this planting season - and I have always said this season is the real test of whether or not what we are doing is working - there are some early encouraging signs that the tide is beginning to turn."