THERE are some things about the way the planet is run which leads me to conclude that the people who run it are either daft, blind or totally crooked. I'll give you an example.

Did you know, because I certainly didn't, that Afghanistan supplies 75 per cent of the world's heroin and 90 per cent of the British market? And that the illicit international trade in Afghan opiates is worth a staggering £16 billion?

This was just one segment of a mind-numbing article in The Independent last Saturday. There was nothing sensationalist about the piece on Afghan opium farming, by someone called Jason Bennetto (that can't be a "cod" name). And, because of its matter-of-fact tone, I realised I was reading something profoundly disturbing.

According to Mr Bennetto, heroin sold in Britain and the rest of Europe is likely to generate a £130 million windfall for Afghan farmers this year following a bumper opium harvest and a jump in the drug's wholesale price.

The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan with a particularly strict code of Islamic fundamentalism, banned cultivation of poppies, from which opium/heroin is derived. This led to the price of raw opium soaring from £20 per kilo to £230.

And it didn't drop even when the Afghan power base changed after "9/11", which has encouraged the farmers to return to poppy cultivation.

The Taliban were ousted in the American "War on Terror" following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and The Pentagon, leaving mainly the Americans and British in charge of trying to restore some stability to a country wrecked by years of conflict with the Russians and internal squabbling among the different tribes.

Are we to assume, then, that the job of rebuilding the place, and trying to keep the warlords at arm's length, has diverted attention from the fact that, under their noses, Afghan farmer are producing enough heroin to send the world's population into orbit for the forseeable future?

Of course, there's always the problem of getting the stuff from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the streets of places like Bolton, but that hasn't presented much of an obstacle in the past.

Apparently there are "mules" -- four-legged and two-legged -- who can make the marathon trip undetected.

Profits should amount to £2,000 per Afghan farmer, according to Mr Bennetto. Given the current appalling living conditions in which most of the country's residents live, £2,000 can buy an awful lot of life's little necessities. So there is a powerful incentive to plant and grow poppies.

Given the sophisticated technical equipment the occupying forces have at their disposal, are we meant to accept that this massive harvest has gone undetected? Cobblers. The UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention knows about it. As does Jason Bennetto.

So, where is it going and who is trousering the £16 billion? Answers on a postcard please...