Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the drug trade is a greater threat to his country than terrorism. Mr Karzai says the heroin trade has criminalised Afghanistan's economy, tainted the country's image and hindered the development of strong government institutions. He has even gone as far as suggesting that it endangers Afghanistan's very existence as a nation state. He says foreign criminal gangs are heavily involved in the cultivation of opium poppies from which the heroin is made. "We have reports of the mafia from the rest of the world, probably from the Western countries as well, coming and actively encouraging drugs in Afghanistan, forcing people to grow poppies in Afghanistan," he said. "We have to fight it on all fronts. Afghanistan has simply no option there but to do it."