Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is a former Soviet Republic nation in Central Asia. Now an independent nation, Uzbekistan borders Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Given its largely unguarded border with Afghanistan, the world's leading opiate producing nation, Uzbekistan is a transit country for Afghan opium and heroin bound for Russian and Western Europe. It is also a transit point for heroin precursor chemicals bound for Afghanistan.

Uzbekistan also cultivates cannabis and limited amounts of opium poppy, but these crops are primarily for domestic consumption. A successful government crop eradication program severely limited poppy cultivation. Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in Uzbekistan, with approximately 4.2 percent of the adult population using marijuana annually. Opiate drugs are also popular and used by nearly 1 percent of the ...