The State Department this week announced more than $18 million in awards to provincial governments in Afghanistan in the fight against the illicit opium industry in that country.  The award comes after news this past November that countrywide there was an “alarming” 18 percent increase in 2012 in poppy growing.  On top of this, John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, presented testimony to Congress on Wednesday regarding the hazards of direct assistance to the government of what Chairman Jason Chaffetz of the House Subcommittee on National Security called “one of the most corrupt nations in existence.”

The State Department press release on the awards begins as follows: