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Since 1996, thirteen states have enacted laws that allow the cultivation of medical marijuana and protect patients who possess medical marijuana (with their doctors' recommendations or certifications) from criminal penalties: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Eight of the thirteen did so through the initiative process. Hawaii's law was enacted by the legislature and signed by the governor in 2000; Vermont's was enacted by the legislature and passed into law without the governor's signature in 2004; Rhode Island's was passed into law over the governor's veto in 2006; and New Mexico's legislation was signed into law by Governor Bill Richardson in 2007.

"In the 1990s, production shifted from South-East Asia (mainly Myanmar) to Afghanistan which at present provides over 90 per cent of global supply."

"More than 60 per cent of drug treatment demand in Asia and Europe relate to opiates that are, especially heroin, the most deadly drugs. Deaths due to overdose are, in any single year, as high as 5,000-8,000 in Europe, and several times this amount in the Russian Federation alone."

"The world consumes some 3,700 tons of illicit opium per year (1/3 raw and 2/3 processed into heroin) and seizes 1,000 tons. Illicit opiate trade flows have never been previously known: this report breaks new ground by estimating them by country (and regions)."

"The main opiate consumer market is Europe (about 19 per cent of global consumption, with a market value of US$ 20 billion), the Russian Federation (15 per cent), the Islamic Republic of Iran (15 per cent), China (12 per cent), India (7 per cent), Pakistan (6 per cent), Africa (6 per cent) and the Americas (6 per cent)."

"When the Taliban were in power (in the late 1990s) they extracted US$ 75-100 million a year from taxing opium. In the 2005-2008 period the cumulative revenue from opiate farming and trade accruing to Taliban insurgents is estimated at US$ 350-650 million, or an annual average of US$ 90-160 million in Afghanistan alone. This estimate does not include insurgents’ potential revenues from other drug-related activities (labs, imports of precursors) in Afghanistan and from the US$1 billion opiate trade in Pakistan."

"Of the US$ 65 billion turnover of the global market for opiates, only 5-10 per cent (US$ 3-5 billion) are estimated to be laundered by informal banking systems. The rest is laundered through legal trade activities (including smuggling of legal goods into Afghanistan) and the banking system."

"The world only intercepts one fifth of the global opiate flows every year, with very mixed performances at the country level. The Islamic Republic of Iran has the highest seizures rate, at 20 per cent. Next are China (18 per cent) and Pakistan (17 per cent). In the two main source countries, Afghanistan and Myanmar, seizures represent only 2 per cent each of the world total. An equally insignificant 2 per cent is seized in South-Eastern Europe, the last segment of the Balkan route to Europe. Along the Northern route (Central Asia - Russia), the interception rate is also low (4-5 per cent)."

"Afghanistan currently ranks in the second lowest percentile on the World Bank’s corruption index. (293) A significant component of this index is based on the activities of corruption prone government agencies. Survey after survey reveals the Afghan perception of law enforcement and courts as among the most corrupt institutions in the country. (294) A 2006 poll by the Asia Foundation found that 77 per cent of Afghans believed corruption was a problem at the national level.(295)"

"In the world over 15 million people use illicit opiates (opium, heroin and morphine) annually. The value of the global opiate market is estimated at US$ 65 billion."