An Afghan soldier is pictured in a poppy field in Maiwand, west of Kandahar in 2005. [File Photo: AFP]

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released on Wednesday a report showing the devastating consequences caused by the huge amount of opium and other drugs from Afghanistan in the world.

The report entitled "Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: The transnational threat of Afghan opium" showed the devastating consequences that the 900 tons of opium and 375 tons of heroin trafficked from Afghanistan every year have on the health and security of countries along the Balkan and Eurasian drug routes, all the way to Europe, Russia, India and China.

The report documented how the world's deadliest drug has created a market worth of 65 billion U.S. dollars, catering to 15 million addicts, causing up to 100,000 deaths per year, spreading the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) at an unprecedented rate and, not least, funding criminal groups, insurgents and terrorists.

The report's findings also revealed the incongruence between high volumes of heroin use and low volumes of seizures.

Approximately 40 percent of Afghanistan's heroin (150 tons) is trafficked each year into Pakistan, and around 30 percent (105 tons) enters Iran, while 25 percent (100 tons) flows into Central Asia.

The root of the problem lies in Afghanistan where corruption, lawlessness and uncontrolled borders result in an insignificant 2 percent interception rate of the opiates produced, compared to one third (36 percent) in Colombia for cocaine, according to the report.

The report said that the human cost of addiction in consuming countries is higher than the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan's poppy fields.

The number of heroin addicts in Russia has gone up by a factor of 10 in the past decade, to the point that more Russians die every year from Afghan drugs (more than 30,000 according to government figures) than the total number of soldiers killed during the 10-year Afghan war.

The report also said that the drug money made by the Taliban today increased significantly, in comparison to the 1990s, when they were in power.

The report pointed out that, a decade ago the Taliban earned 75 million to 100 million dollars per year by taxing opium cultivation -- the only source of foreign exchange available to the regime. Since 2005, Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan have derived 90 million to 160 million dollars per year just from taxing opium production and trade.

Afghanistan has the world monopoly of opium cultivation (92 percent), which is the raw material for the world's deadliest drug -- heroin.