Some 10,000 people die from opium abuse in NATO countries each year, it said in a new report.

UNODC estimates some 15 million people take the drug each year and it contributes to the spread of HIV and AIDS. It also says 100,000 people die from opium use annually.

Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world’s opium in a market worth some 65 billion dollars (43 billion euros). Opium, manufactured from the extract of poppies, can also be refined to make to heroin.

“Seizing Afghan opium where it is produced is infinitely more efficient and cheaper than trying to do so where it is consumed,” UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa said in a plea to the international community to spend more resources in fighting drug trafficking in Afghanistan.

“This is not just a shared responsibility: it’s hard-headed self-interest,” he added.

Production of opium has exploded in the past 10 years to reach 6,900 tonnes in 2009. That exceeds worldwide consumption and UNODC believes it will increase even further if no action is taken.

“With so much opium in evil hands, the need to locate and destroy these stocks is more urgent than ever,” Costa said.

Stemming the flow of drugs out of the country only recently became part of NATO’s responsibility and Costa believes stopping opium exports would strike a key blow to against the Taliban.

“The Taliban’s direct involvement in the opium trade allows them to fund a war machine that is becoming technologically more complex and increasingly widespread,” he said, adding the are increasingly working together with criminal organisations.

Estimates by UNODC say the Taliban make some 160 million dollars a year from drug trafficking.

Profits made from opium are also being funnelled into militant groups in Pakistan and Central Asia where “a big part of the region could be engulfed in large-scale terrorism, endangering its massive energy resources,” Costa said.

He described the Afghan-Pakistan border the world’s largest free trade zone in anything and everything that is illicit”, blighted by drugs, weapons and illegal immigration.