Second Place
David Guttenfelder
The Associated Press
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"AFGHANISTAN OPIUM WARS"
Using eradication, interdiction, alternative farming, drug rehabilitation, and various economic programs, Afghan and international parters are trying rid Afghanistan of its opium. A decade after the U.S.-led invasion of of Afghanistan, the country has once again become a narco-state and is currently the world's top opium supplier. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that Afghan opium kills more people worldwide—up to 100,000 per year—than any other drug. Opium sales directly fund the Taliban insurgency fighting against U.S. and NATO forces each day. This story was shot in 2010 but was published for the first time in February 2011.
*** Afghan police use sticks to destroy a poppy field in Badakhshan Province. Despite such efforts, Afghanistan is the world's top opium supplier.
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