"Efforts to eradicate opium have proven just as problematic. In Afghanistan the Afghan Eradication Force and the air support required to protect it and monitor its effectiveness cost the USG [United States Government] an estimated US$ 992 million between 2005 and 2009. Over this same period the Afghan Eradication Force destroyed an estimated 9,236 ha of opium poppy and cultivation rose from 107,400 ha in 2005 to 131,000 in 2009. Mexico has eradicated poppy regularly since the 1930’s. In 1947 the net poppy crop was 4,000 hectares. In 2009 it was 15,000 hectares."
Mansfiled, David, "Assessing Supply-Side Policy and Practice: Eradication and Alternative Development," Global Commission on Drug Policies (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: January 2011), p. 8.
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