To follow an Afghan opium trade route through Central Asia and on to Russia, check out our Photo Essay.

With the departure of the Taliban, the current opium crop in Afghanistan is among the largest ever. How will the world's drug control authorities deal with this fact of Central Asian life? And how will the United States resolve a dilemma that pits the war on terror against the war on drugs?

Links to information on the global drug trade, and efforts to combat the drug problem in Afghanistan.

Filmmaker Chris Hilton discusses his experiences with the Afghan poppy farmers featured in BITTER HARVEST and the logistical vagaries of filming in this infrastructure-strapped region.

The history of the opium trade in Afghanistan since 1979 when the Mujahaddin cultivated opium to buy weapons.

As the U.S. military build-up continues in Central Asia, one frequently overlooked factor in the region's stability demands attention. It is the link between Afghan opiates and terrorism. After September 11, Western government officials and media reports put the onus for this link on al-Qaeda and the Taliban. But neither of these groups was ever interested in the large-scale production or trafficking of opiates.

Forces aligned against the Taliban find themselves in an uneasy relationship with the drug lords who cultivate much of the world's heroin.

UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown talks with host Daljit Dhaliwal.

Use our Maps to size up the scope of Afghanistan's opium industry.