Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s Poppy Ban May Fail. Its Success Could Bring Global Crisis.
Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s Poppy Ban May Fail. Its Success Could Bring Global Crisis.
For decades, the war-torn country of Afghanistan has been the world’s largest producer of illicit opiates (opium, heroin and morphine). According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan accounted for a staggering 85 percent of global opium production in 2020. “It’s as easy as growing potatoes, you just don’t need to do much,” one poppy farmer said.
In April 2022, the ruling Taliban declared a ban on growing poppies, although doing so has always been formally illegal. Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, announced a religious edict: “Cultivation of poppy has been strictly prohibited across the country. Usage, transportation, trade, export and import of all types of narcotics … including drug manufacturing factories in Afghanistan are strictly banned. If anyone violates the decree, the crop will be destroyed immediately…”
The renewed ban may well ultimately fail—while causing more suffering along the way.
If the supply of Afghan heroin dries up, countries that import it face a grave threat of increased overdose deaths through a switch to synthetic opioids, like fentanyl.
But if it succeeds, it will destroy hundreds of thousands of livelihoods in a country where poverty impacts more than 90 percent of the population. And downstream, if the supply of Afghan heroin dries up, countries that import it face a grave threat of increased overdose deaths through a switch to synthetic opioids, like fentanyl. (Filter, USA, 30.08.2023)