With the steady but sure re-emergence of the Taliban in the south of Afghanistan and the world’s attention turned to other hotspots in the Middle East, Harmid Karzai, the leader of Afghanistan has continued to push the drugs issue as a way of re-entering the spotlight.

“Once, we thought terrorism was Afghanistan’s biggest enemy,” Karzai told a counter-narcotics conference in Kabul this week. “Poppy, its cultivation and drugs are Afghanistan’s major enemy,” he said.

This is actually a pretty smart move from Karzai.

He knows that politicians in several different western countries (and eastern) have a vested political interest in the war on drugs.

He knows his own government, faces a major threat from a resurgent Taliban that is largely taking funding from renewed heroin smuggling activities.

The only trick now is to marry the two and hopefully get a little anti-drugs aid money thrown his way so he can go about suring up his own power base.

The problem however, is the extent of the drug trade in Afghanistan which currently accounts for a third of the ecnonomy according to some (possible slighlty exaggerated) reports. That means major efforts to reduce that will need to go hand in hand with major efforts to replace its economy for the locals who rely on the crop.

That in turn likely means a lot more aid money than most countries will be willing to give.

Meanwhile, this year’s trade in opium and heroin is expected to be the biggest ever.