Opium production in Afghanistan has plummeted since the Taliban banned cultivation of the poppy plant, according to a UN report published on Sunday.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers pledged to wipe out the country’s drug industry, banning poppy cultivation in April 2022.
Poppy plants are the source of opium and heroin. Afghanistan was the world’s biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia before the Taliban takeover.
The UNODC said the Taliban crackdown on the poppy industry could have a negative impact on many Afghans’ livelihoods and warned of "humanitarian consequences for many vulnerable rural communities.
So to stop growing drugs is a bad thing now?
We never stopped it for a reason during all the time the US was there. You need to establish an alternative income for the farmers. They grow poppy because it feeds their families. Ironically the big profits were only seen by the Taliban and not the actual farmers.
Now the farmers can’t just switch to almonds or other high value crops instantly so they will go broke. And many of the US attempts to fund the transition away from poppies were corrupted by Afghan government, making farmers move back to poppies.
That’s a valid point, though the article sounds like cultivation was going on during the the time the Taliban wasn’t in control and is now being banned by them.
I have no doubt that the actual farmers got nothing of value in either regimes though.
20 years of US occupation and almost 50k civilian deaths and its worse than before, sounds about right.
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It’s complicated. Afghanistan had made hydro projects with the West back in the day. Those pushed salt up the water table. Guess what plant is fine with that saltier soil?
I’m sure they will be able to farm other things… like food.
What about before the US invasion? Was opium allowed by Taliban then?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan
Poorly enforced restrictions in the 1990s were a prelude to a full and very effective ban on religious grounds in 2000. The Afghan war in 2001 meant that the ban was only briefly effective.
The Taliban made most of their money on opium sales from 2001-2021.
True, to fight the war.
It seems however, during peacetime, they have a history of banning the drug trade for religious reasons
The United States blocked grain shipments to Afghanistan because Republicans didn’t want any more competition to US farmers. So they grew poppies.
It was cotton
It’s always cotton.
Islam will be the only opium of the people!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Opium production in Afghanistan has plummeted since the Taliban banned cultivation of the poppy plant, according to a UN report published on Sunday.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers pledged to wipe out the country’s drug industry, banning poppy cultivation in April 2022.
Afghanistan was the world’s biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia before the Taliban takeover.
The UNODC said the Taliban crackdown on the poppy industry could have a negative impact on many Afghans’ livelihoods and warned of “humanitarian consequences for many vulnerable rural communities.”
“Today, Afghanistan’s people need urgent humanitarian assistance… to absorb the shock of lost income and save lives,” UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said.
Afghanistan has already been grappling with a severe humanitarian crisis sparked by decades of war, as well as natural disasters such as earthquakes and droughts.
The original article contains 453 words, the summary contains 138 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I don’t see why they would do that.
Don’t they like money?
At first glance, I thought this was a picture of a soldier frolicking through the poppies.
