Kathmandu: South Asian countries continue to be a channel for the drug traffickers because of their proximity to the world’s most prolific opiate production areas in South-East Asia and South-West Asia, says a report on the International Narcotics Control Board for 2003.

UNIC and INCB-Nepal released the report here, on 3rd March 2004 at the UNDP-Nepal premises.

In Nepal, Cannabis grows wild in the high hills of the central, mid-western and Far Western part, where illicit crop eradication is expensive due to the difficult terrain. In the southern part of Nepal, cannabis cultivation has increased; most of the cannabis grown there is destined for the illicit market in India and abroad, says the report.

Adding further, the report states, “in Nepal the smuggling and abuse of heroin from South-West Asia and South-East Asia are on the rise. The illicit cultivation of opium poppy occurs on a small scale, but it is increasing”., concludes the report.

On the occasion the UNDP Resident Representative, Mathew Kahane was present.