While provincial leaders usually deny the existence of heroin processing laboratories in Afghanistan, major shipments of precursor chemicals are reputed to enter Afghanistan from Central Asia via the borders at Termez, Uzbekistan, and Torghundi, Turkmenistan, from where they are shipped to heroin refineries in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Heroin base and morphine are smuggled out of Afghanistan and into the international market by sophisticated Pakistani trafficking organizations operating out of Quetta, Pakistan. These groups place orders with the Afghani processors and arrange for transshipment of the drugs from Afghanistan through Pakistan and to Iranian or Turkish buyers who move it through Iran and into the international market. Some reports indicate that Iranian vigilance and aggressive actions against traffickers have made Iran an increasingly difficult route. This may make Central Asia or Pakistan more attractive alternatives for traffickers.
Most Afghan opium is destined for processing into heroin in Turkey.
According to anecdotal reports from two districts in northern Helmand, there was a notable decrease in poppy planted in 1995 for 1996 harvest. This is believed to be the result of expanding markets for cereals in the regional centers of Gerishk, Lashkar Gah, and Kandahar. The relatively high wheat prices approach the presently depressed net return of opium. More anecdotal evidence attributes a weakened opium market to large stockpiles of opium accumulated over the past year. Unfavorable weather and plant diseases also adversely affected opium cultivation.