Which country produces the most hashish?

This week’s quiz question: Which country produces the most hashish? a) Afghanistan    b) Morocco    c) Russia Answer after the jump … A, Afghanistan. Afghanistan is well known as the world’s top producer of opium, but it’s also the world’s top producer of hashish, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Other countries do ...

Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images
Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images
Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

This week's quiz question:

This week’s quiz question:

Which country produces the most hashish?

a) Afghanistan    b) Morocco    c) Russia

Answer after the jump …

A, Afghanistan. Afghanistan is well known as the world’s top producer of opium, but it’s also the world’s top producer of hashish, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Other countries do have more land area under cannabis cultivation, but Afghanistan comes out on top because its crop yields more hashish (derived from the resin of the cannabis plant) per hectare. Cannabis generates more net income per hectare than opium poppies, but farmers prefer the poppies because the cannabis plant is more perishable once harvested and grows in the summer, when irrigation water is less available.

"Afghanistan’s drug problem is even more complex than just the opium trade," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UNODC, in March. "Yet the remedy remains the same. By improving governance and development in Afghanistan’s drug-producing regions, we can knock out the world’s biggest supplies of both hash and heroin." 

Now, if only there were a way to wave a magic wand and have better governance in Afghanistan …

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2016 and was an FP assistant editor from 2007 to 2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

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