NARCOTICS JEOPARDIZE AID GAINS

WASHINGTON — Afghans are growing more opium poppies than ever before and it’s threatening to wipe out gains made to help the impoverished country improve health, education and governance, the U.S. watchdog for spending in Afghanistan said Tuesday.

John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction, told a House subcommittee that the narcotics trade is tainting the financial sector, stoking corruption, helping Taliban insurgents and criminal networks. He said there already are signs that elements within the Afghan security forces are making arrangements with rural populations to permit opium poppy growing as a way to build local patronage networks.

“The expanding cultivation and trafficking of drugs is one of the most significant factors putting the entire U. S. and international donor investment in the reconstruction of Afghanistan at risk,” he said.