大象传媒

The war-torn country's record harvest last year was enough to meet almost twice the world's demand for heroin and other illicit opiate drugs.

Justin Rowlatt reports from Kabul and from rural Afghanistan, as he explores where the opium is ending up, and what can be done about it. Is the Taliban largely to blame, as the US military claims, or do the roots of the opium poppy run broader and deeper than that?

Justin speaks to the commander of US forces General John Nicholson, the deputy director of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime Mark Calhoun, and the government national security advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: Opium poppies; Credit: Javed Tanveer/AFP/Getty Images)