UK fails to stop Afghan heroin

Senior Western officials in Kabul have admitted for the first time that they are resigned to Afghanistan being a major source of heroin for at least a decade because the country's crippled economy is so dependent on the industry.

"There's no magic bullet," one senior Whitehall official said. "It's a long-term campaign over many years."

The war-torn country is the world's largest source of heroin, producing 85 per cent of the global supply, with a value estimated at $2bn (£1.1bn).

The UK was given the task of leading the global campaign to eradicate opium three years ago - chiefly because 95 per cent of the heroin used in Britain is from Afghanistan.

But progress in stopping poppy cultivation has been slower than expected, leading to intense criticism from US drugs enforcers.

In the four years since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Afghanistan has produced more heroin than ever before.Earlier this month, the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, conceded it had been far harder to combat the trade than expected. He said the UK will spend another £115m on its Afghan drugs campaign over the next three years, taking the total to £270m.

Last night Mike Trace, the Government's former deputy drugs tsar and now director of the Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme, said: "It worries me this position isn't being discussed with the profession and the public. If we want to get to grips with the drugs problem, we need a more open debate."