[…] The poor farmers in Afghanistan’s mountainous North and East who grew poppy two to three years ago have now mostly stopped, as security, governance and development opportunities have improved in these areas. In the South, where most of the poppy is now grown, cultivation is organized by wealthy traffickers and big landowners who plant poppy because of high profits and the absence of law enforcement in insecure areas.

[…] The world is growing more aware that no country or society is immune from the social, economic and political damage caused by international drug trafficking, a U.S. government representative said during the release of the 2008 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

[…] This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first such report issued by the Bureau. To mark this milestone, I would like to take a moment to discuss some of the more significant improvements regarding international drug control cooperation over this two-and-a-half decade period.

[…] MS. MCCAMPBELL: Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. Again, I'm Christy McCampbell and I'm the Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs here at Department of State. I think as all of you know, each time at this part of the year, the President designates what we call the Majors list of illegal drug transit and drug producing countries. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk with you about this this morning.

[…] “The drug trade and the Taliban insurgency are connected intrinsically, and they share a common interest in resisting Afghan government authority and international forces,” Kim Howells, minister of state for the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said June 26 at the Foreign Press Center in Washington. Howells was accompanied by John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

[…] Molly Millerwise, the Treasury Department’s public affairs director, told USINFO May 15 that her agency’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, in partnership with the U.S. departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security, is denying drug lords and their businesses access to the U.S. financial sector. The disruption of the Colombian drug cartels, she said, is part of overall U.S. success in toppling the financial empires of drug cartels worldwide.

[…] “This difficult challenge of meeting legitimate needs while eliminating synthetic drug production warrants a strong system of both international cooperation and national regulation for effective precursor chemical control,” U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Thomas Schweich said March 12 in Vienna, Austria, at the meeting of the 50th United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND).

[…] The Government of Italy (GOI) is firmly committed to the fight against drug trafficking domestically and internationally. The Prodi government continues Italy's strong counternarcotics stand with capable Italian law enforcement agencies. Italy is a consumer country and a major transit point for heroin transiting from the Middle East and southwest Asia through the Balkans and for cocaine originating from South America en route to western/central Europe.

[…] Italy is not an offshore financial center. Italy is part of the euro area and is fully integrated in the European Union (EU) single market for financial services.

Money laundering is a concern both because of the prevalence of homegrown organized crime groups and the recent influx of criminal organizations from abroad, especially from Albania, Romania, and Russia.

[…] While the INCSR delves into substantial detail on a country by country basis, I would like to highlight major trends and accomplishments. In 2006, the United States and our partners in the international community continued to combat narcotics and money-laundering activities vigorously throughout the world. Nonetheless, we saw both progress and setbacks last year.