Few ask how.
Fewer ask how it didn't happen earlier.
The numbers, for instance, in 1999 were astoundingly high given their sense of "purity" and that they'd been in power for three years.
Opium will likely always be a part of the region.
Today, most of Afghanistan's opium, by far, is produced in the far south which coincides both with British control and their anti-narcotics policies and the heart of the taliban insurgency.
Opium production is not uniform across Afghanistan and many areas have eradicated poppy-growth or are near doing so. You know that from your UNODC access but choose not to highlight any successes.
" I wonder how much business has boomed for people like Karzi's brother over the last year as well which is sadly not included)."
Those dang corrupt pashtus. Ya just can't trust em', eh?
Personally, I'd buy the whole crop at the farmer's door at above-market price and arm them to protect their crop until harvested and sold to authorized UNODC or ISAF agents/officers. $1 billion per year ought to do it.
Burn it or turn it to medicinal from there.