Afghanistan: Opium supply drops 95% after Taliban drug ban – DW – 11/05/2023
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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.

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.

  • sfgifz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    322·
    11 months ago

    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?

    • s7ryph@kbin.social
      232·
      11 months ago

      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.

      • sfgifz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        11 months ago

        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.

      • banneryear1868@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        11 months ago

        20 years of US occupation and almost 50k civilian deaths and its worse than before, sounds about right.

    • ours@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      11 months ago

      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?