Before the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the illicit trade in opium helped pay for their insurgency. Now they are cracking down on it
Before the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the illicit trade in opium, a gum produced from poppies, helped pay for their insurgency. The mullahs encouraged farmers to plant poppies and taxed the trade. But drugs are deemed under Islamic law. Shortly after taking power the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, banned narcotics. And stunning recent evidence from across the country’s opium belt in the south and east suggests he meant it.
It will be harder to eliminate poppies in remoter regions, such as Badakhshan in the north-east. Still, the results thus far point to a dramatic success. David Mansfield, a researcher who has studied Afghanistan’s illicit economy for over 25 years, reckons Afghanistan’s poppy production will drop by 80% between 2022 and 2023.
The Taliban have form. They banned poppy cultivation during their previous spell in power, in 2000, with similar results. It duly dropped from around 82,000 hectares in 2000 to less than 8,000 in 2001. The ban was rolled back only later that year, amid the looming prospect of an invasion by America and its allies.
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