A Deadly Habit.

Sitting in a plush leather chair and smoking a Cuban cigar in his office in Jalalabad, Nanghyal, 38, looks the part of a drug-mafia don-- and until recently, he was. Now after 15 years he is bailing out of the opium-trafficking business. He doesn't need to run drugs anymore, he says, thanks to a series of smart real-estate deals. But according to him, the main reason he's quitting the trade is because it's becoming too rough. Nanghyal, who didn't want to give his real name, says he used to be a 50-50 partner in the opium business in Nangarhar province with the late Afghan vice president and warlord Haji Qadir, who was assassinated in Kabul last year. Now that Hazrat Ali, a Qadir rival, has taken over the province, Nanghyal knows he's worn out his welcome. "The newcomers, these [military] commanders who are good friends of the U.S., are taking over by force," he complains. "These guys are powerful and cruel and they don't want any competition."

Ever since Afghanistan became embroiled in a vicious civil war in the late 1980s, the battle-scarred country has been the world's largest opium producer. Except in late 2000, when the Taliban banned production on the grounds that it was forbidden by Islam, the country has produced bumper harvest after bumper harvest of the colorful poppies. Production picked up last year after the Taliban were ousted: Afghan farmers produced some 3,400 metric tons of opium in 2002. This year's harvest is expected to be even greater: some 4,000 metric tons, accounting for approximately 75 percent of the world's supply.

The initial opium boom could be excused by the power vacuum following the Taliban's collapse. But that doesn't explain what's happening now. Increasingly powerful warlords--most of them U.S. allies--have begun nurturing poppy cultivation and elbowing their way into the illegal trade, despite President Hamid Karzai's prohibitions against it. Their defiance is further weakening the central government's authority in the provinces as more Afghans cash in on the drug bonanza. There is now evidence that smugglers and Taliban remnants may be teaming up to challenge Karzai's authority. In fact, the network of warlords and corrupt officials who operate this illegal traffic may pose the most potent threat to the country's stability. Referring to the smugglers and their warlord backers, one provincial governor admits, "I don't dare touch these snakes."

Two names that come up when one talks to people about the opium business are Hazrat Ali and Gul Agha Sherazai, the Kandahar governor, who also holds sway over three neighboring provinces, all large opium producers. Ahad, a 28-year-old former Taliban official turned drug smuggler, says that warlords like Hazrat Ali and Sherazai are either directly involved in narcotics trafficking or getting paid off to cooperate with the smugglers. Often, says Ahad, the strongmen's military or police officials ride along with the 50- to 70-vehicle-long convoys to ensure the drug caravans don't encounter delays. Both men strenuously deny they have any ties to the drug trade, but few take those denials seriously. "It's inconceivable that warlords like Hazrat Ali and Gul Agha are not profiting handsomely from the drug production and trafficking taking place right under their noses," says a Western diplomat in Kabul.

In Nangarhar and elsewhere, most farmers refuse to name the traffickers who buy their opium, fearing retribution. Farmer Ghulam Shah, 35, is the exception. He thanks God and Hazrat ...