In a rather bizarre press release, Ghaus Buksh Mahar, Pakistan’s Minister for Anti-Narcotics, last Friday reaffirmed his intent to maintain the country’s status as a “poppy free country.”

According to the release, the UN had awarded the country with a certificate affiming this status.

The release goes on to promote Pakistan’s credentials of having scanning machines installed in many seaports and airports though there seems to be a major oversight as no scanning machine appears to have been installed at the Pakistani end of the Khyber Pass - one of the world’s oldest smuggling routes.

The Minister also made the quite remarkable claim that there was not a single laboratory in all of Pakistan that was converting opium into heroin.

Somebody must have forgotten to tell the Pakistani fellow in the photo about his country’s exemplary record on heroin and opium eradication as the hit he is seen taking still costs about $2 in Karachi.

Perhaps the most worrying thing about this press release is that it might have some influence on the development of international drug policy and aid programs at the UN and in the US.