"The total area under opium poppy cultivation worldwide is estimated to have increased by some 37 per cent to almost 420,000 ha from 2016 to 2017, primarily reflecting an increase in the cultivation of opium poppy in Afghanistan. With 328,000 ha under opium poppy cultivation, Afghanistan accounted for more than three quarters of the estimated global area under illicit opium poppy cultivation in 2017, a record level.

In 2010, a kilogram of heroin typically sold for an average wholesale price of $2,527.60 in Pakistan. The 2010 wholesale price for a kilogram of heroin in Afghanistan ranged around $2,266. In Colombia, a kilogram of heroin typically sold for $10,772.3 wholesale in 2010. In the United States in 2010, a kilogram of heroin ranged in price between $33,000-$100,000.