Associated Press

                  WASHINGTON – Opium poppy cultivation almost tripled last year in Mexico, but
                  there was a big reduction in Pakistan, the State Department said Friday in a report
                  on drug production worldwide.

                  Opium poppies are the raw material for heroin.

                  Despite the increase in Mexico, American officials have consistently praised the level
                  of cooperation there in combating narcotics trafficking.

                  The study, titled the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, also concluded
                  that farmers throughout Afghanistan took advantage of the collapse of the Taliban
                  militia last November to resume poppy cultivation.

                  The Taliban had banned such production but, the report said, no effort was made to
                  seize stored opium or precursor chemicals or to arrest and prosecute narcotics
                  traffickers.

                  On Pakistan, the report said the country has essentially achieved its ambitious goal
                  of eliminating opium production by the year 2000.

                  The opium poppy crop fell to a record low of 526 acres last year, with cultivation
                  concentrated in inaccessible areas.

                  The report said Mexico effectively eradicated 42,000 acres of poppies last year but
                  the remaining acreage still yielded 78 tons of opium gum.

                  That was up from 30 tons of opium gum in 2000, the report said, adding that at
                  current conversion rates that would mean 7.7 tons of heroin in 2001, compared with
                  3.3 in 2000.

                  Heroin and cocaine are the illicit drugs that most concern the United States.

                  In addition to the increase in poppy production last year, Mexico also registered an
                  increase in marijuana production, from 7,700 tons to 8,140.