The latest data from the United Nations suggests that the illicit opium industry may finally be on the decline, after years of successfully resisting high-profile global eradication initiatives. Winning the fight against this powerful and addictive narcotic will require a new focus on the human toll of the deadly disease of drug abuse.

According to the United Nations Office of Drug Control (UNODC), new gains have been made against opium cultivation in Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer of the narcotic (93% of all opium in 2007 is estimated to have derived from the nation). An annual UNODC survey released December 2009 finds that overall national production in the Asian country dropped 22% in 2009. Additionally, the average wholesale “farm gate” price and third-party retail or “trader” price of Afghan opium saw year-to-year increases, an indication that supply is dwindling, which appears to be the case. The UN counts a full 22% drop in year-to-year net national opium cultivation (157,000 hectares to 123,000 hectares), and estimates an 18% reduction in the gross export value of Aghan opium since 2008.

Following the release of the survey, UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa told international media outlets that “there is a good chance that Afghanistan will produce less opium” in 2010, and that the number of its poppy-free provinces (19) may increase over the next eleven months. The good news found in the UN survey is particularly meaningful as Afghanistan once again enters center stage in the global war against terrorism.

Early in his administration, President Barack Obama approved a new surge in American troops to be deployed to Aghanistan to repel the growing threat of the Taliban terrorist network to the fledgling national government. The Taliban’s need for revenue sources and the dependence of poor Afghan farmers on lucrative cash crops made poppy eradication a challenging proposition for Western nations to make to Afghan government officials since 9/11, who preferred a focus on stability and reconciliation with terrorist organizations over heavy-handed, foreign military solutions. Even today, with the gains made by UNODC, Afghan opium production is significantly higher that at any time during the Taliban-rule in the 1990’s. However, the Taliban has now retrenched its position in Afghan society by enforcing coercive poppy taxes on farmers and violent anti-democratic measures to intimidate and control the populace outside of the nation’s capital, bringing the country to the brink of narco-state status. Fearful of losing a valuable ally and a strategic partner in the Islamic World, the United States has doubled its efforts to ensure that power is kept in the corridors of Kabul.

With the new anti-Taliban campaign underway, it’s important for global leaders to acknowledge that the recovery community has been a stalwart supporter of drug interdiction in Afghanistan, as opium addiction has devastated countless lives throughout the world. According to the national Survey on Drug Use and Health, there were approximately 338,000 heroin users in the United States. The affects of heroin on the human body are devastating – liver and kidney disease, heart complications, and skin infections from drug injections on scarred and collapsed veins. Though heroin abuse is not as common as other illicit substances, opium also comes in other forms, such as pain-relieving prescription drugs, which the U.S. is the largest consumer on the Earth. From Vicodin, to OxyContin, and Demerol, opium abuse more commonly hides in the medicine cabinets of homes across America, where teenagers are now becoming more at-risk of addiction. A 2009 survey from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found among the nation’s 12-to-17 year olds, 4.7 million stated they can obtain prescription drugs in an hour to get high, and 8.7 million could get the drugs in a day.

The outcome of America’s military campaign in Afghanistan will not only impact the global power struggle among disparate nations, but it will also affect countless families who are under siege from rampant opiate abuse. Bringing more public awareness to the deadly origins of poppy production today may save lives at home, and turn the tide of the war abroad.