Records Opium Yields in Afghanistan – Another Drug War Failure

…economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics. – Ludwig von Mises

The United Nations' anti-drugs chief announced a "staggering" 60% rise in opium cultivation in Afghanistan this year, and demanded the government arrest scores of major traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police who are profiting from the trade.

If the supply of any good declines while the demand remains constant, what happened to the price? Its goes up of course! So how did the anti-drug policy cause a rise in production in the first place?

The rise comes despite an injection of hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid to fight the drug over the past two years.

This should actually start off, “The rise comes because of…”. In other words the supply was restricted and caused a rise in prices. The rise in prices gave growers more incentives to raise opium. The actions taken to eradicate the supply of the drug provided the price incentives for supplies to grow more of it. There is no victory when you battle the market.

The record crop yielded 6,100 tons of opium -- enough to make 610 tons of heroin -- outstripping the demand of the world's drug users by a third.

I’m not sure what the WSJ means by this. Likely this is just a sloppy comparison to last years consumption figures and may portend a price fall.
The benefits of eradication are a windfall to the growers and intermediaries involved in the drug trade. The drug war is better thought of as a massive transfer of wealth from the US taxpayer directly to the traffickers. With out the Leviathan spending so much to keep the price of drugs high the suppliers and dealers of narcotics wouldn’t have so much incentive to advance and perfect their trade.