Farmers in Afghanistan, for decades the world's biggest producers of heroin, have now begun growing cannabis.
It is feared that without immediate intervention, the country will soon overtake Morocco as the number one global supplier of the drug.
Hashish-producing areas in Afghanistan have almost doubled in the past year with fields previously targeted by
officials in poppy eradication schemes now blossoming with cannabis plants.
One senior British security source told Scotland on Sunday: "The problem is that cannabis is not our major priority. We have made excellent in-roads in tackling heroin production but cannabis is not really in our sights. The locals know this and although they do not make as much money from hashish as they do from heroin, it still is more lucrative than wheat or maize."
New figures published in the United Nations 2007 World Drug Report last week showed how quickly the Afghans have moved into the cannabis market.
It stated: "The proportion of Asia in global cannabis production increased from 15% in 2004 to 22% in 2005 with a significant increase in particular, in Afghanistan. Cannabis cultivation in Afghanistan increased from 30,000 hectares in 2004/05 to 50,000 hectares in 2005/06."
It is estimated that farmers receive around $1,500 (£750) for a kilo of cannabis compared to just $350 (£175) for the equivalent weight in crops.
One of the major cultivation areas is Mazar-i-Sharif, bordering Uzbekistan, a part of Afghanistan which has seen fierce fighting in the ongoing war.
• Defence Secretary, Des Browne has said Britain should reach out to elements of the Taliban who can be won over to democracy.
Browne applied the same point to the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah as well as the Taliban enemy of British troops in Afghanistan. "What you need to do in conflict resolution is to bring the people who believe that the answer to their political ambitions will be achieved through violence into a frame of mind that they accept that their political ambitions will be delivered by politics," he said.
The full article contains 348 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
